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Shakes peor&.W nit a vr\ 


THE ARDEN SHAKESPEARE 

General Editor , C. H. Herford, Litt.D., University of Manchester 

/ 

TROILUS 

AND 

CRESSIDA 

EDITED BY 

ROBERT METCALF SMITH * 

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH 
LEHIGH UNIVERSITY 



D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY 


BOSTON 

ATLANTA 


NEW YORK 
SAN FRANCISCO 
LONDON 


CHICAGO 

DALLAS 


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PRe.6'36 

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Copyright, 1932, 

By D. C. Heath and Company* 


No part of the material covered by this 
copyright may be reproduced in any form 
without written permission of the publisher. 

3 a 2 


Printed in the United States of America 

©CIA 48475 



GENERAL PREFACE 


In this edition of Shakespeare an attempt is 
made to present the greater plays of the dramatist 
in their literary aspect, and not merely as material 
for the study of philology or grammar. Criticism 
purely verbal and textual has only been included to 
such an extent as may serve to help the student in 
the appreciation of the essential poetry. Questions 
of date and literary history have been fully dealt 
with in the Introductions, but the larger space has 
been devoted to the interpretative rather than the 
matter-of-fact order of scholarship. ^Esthetic judg¬ 
ments are never final, but the Editors have attempted 
to suggest points of view from which the analysis of 
dramatic motive and dramatic character may be 
profitably undertaken. In the Notes likewise, while 
it is hoped that all unfamiliar expressions and allu¬ 
sions have been adequately explained, yet it has been 
thought even more important to consider the dra¬ 
matic value of each scene, and the part which it 
plays in relation to the whole. These general princi¬ 
ples are common to the whole series; in detail each 
Editor is alone responsible for the play or plays that 
have been intrusted to him. 

Every volume of the series has been provided with 
a Glossary, and Essay upon Metre, and an Index; 
and Appendices have been added upon points of 
special interest which could not conveniently be 
treated in the Introduction or the Notes. The text 
is based by the several Editors on that of the Globe 
edition. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Introduction .v 

Preface to the 1609 Quarto .xxix 

Dramatis Personae .xxxii 

Troilus and Cressida. 1 

Summaries and Notes.129 

Appendix A — Dramatis Personae .... 145 

Appendix B — Excerpts from Caxton’s 
Recuyell .158 

Appendix C — Versification. 163 

Glossary .169 

Bibliography .179 











INTRODUCTION 


1. HISTORY OF THE PLAY 

Textual History 

The transmission of the text of Troilus and Cressida from 
Shakespeare’s pen to the First Folio of 1623 offers some 
interesting bibliographical and textual problems that still 
await final solution. Research of recent years, however, 
has cleared up many of the false assumptions of nineteenth 
century criticism. 

We first learn of the existence of the play from an entry 
in the Stationers’ Register for February 7, 1603. 

“Master Robertes, Entred for his copie in full Court holden 
this day to print when he hath gotten sufficient aucthoritye 
for yt. The booke of Troilus and Cresseda as yt is acted by 
my lord Chamberlens Men” (Arber, III, 226). 

This record gives us two important points of external 
evidence that cannot lightly be set aside: (1) that the play 
had been written before February 7, 1603, and (2) that it 
had been acted by Shakespeare’s company, the Lord 
Chamberlain’s Men. If it was then being acted, as there is 
no good reason to doubt, it must have been previously 
licensed for playing by the Master of the Revels, Edmund 
Tilney. It is probable that Roberts, who was a printer, 
not a bookseller, claimed, as in other cases, that the Revels 
license covered the right to print as well as to perform, but 
that the full Court, which passed on doubtful cases, ruled 
that Roberts must gain the additional assent of one of the 
Archbishop’s licensers, the Archbishop of Canterbury in 
1588 having been granted the power to license the printing 
of books. (R. Crompton Rhodes, Shakespeare’s First 
Folio, 1923, 23-24). 

Roberts, so far as we know, never carried out his intern 


v 


VI 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


tion of printing the play. When we consider, however, 
that only two quartos of the 1603 Hamlet are extant, 
neither of them perfect, we cannot be sure that a Troilus 
and Cressida quarto of 1603 may not turn up some day. 
If Roberts did not obtain the necessary authority, or print 
the play, good explanations can be advanced. Queen 
Elizabeth died on the 24th of the following month of 
March, and the licensing and printing of books during the 
early months of King James’ ascendency were interrupted. 
Then came the plague, which not only kept the public 
theaters closed during the fall and winter of 1603 and part 
of 1604, but also interfered with publishing ventures. 
Under these circumstances Roberts would have difficulty 
in selling his copyright to a publisher. “By 1608 he had 
no interest in the play, having sold his printing shop in 
Barbican to William Jaggard.” Another explanation 
offered is that Roberts made the entry merely to prevent 
anyone else’s pirating the play from its owners, the Lord 
Chamberlain’s Men. 

At any rate the next record of the play on the Stationers’ 
Register is dated January 28, 1609. 

“Richard Bonion Henry Walleys. Entred for their Copy 
Vnder thandes of Master Segar deputy to Sir George Bucke 
and master warden Lownes a booke called the history of 
Troylus and Cressida” (Arber, III. 400). 

From this entry we observe that the play had again been 
licensed for acting, this time by Sir George Buck who had 
been given full powers as Master of the Revels only since 
1606. The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, now the King’s 
Men, therefore, applied for a second acting license between 
1606-1608, a procedure which would not have been neces¬ 
sary if the play had not undergone revision, or if the com¬ 
pany had already given up the play as a hopeless failure. 

The Quarto Text. Following the copyright permis¬ 
sion came in due course the quarto of 1609, some copies of 
which have a variant half-title page and an added preface. 
The title page first printed reads: 


INTRODUCTION 


vii 

The Historie of Troylus and Cresseida. As it was acted 
by the Kings Maiesties seruants at the Globe. Written by 
William Shakespeare. London Imprinted by G. Eld for 
R. Bonian and H. Walley, and are to be sold at the spred 
Eagle in Paules Church-yeard, ouer against the great North 
doore. 1609. 

From this title page we have further external evidence to 
refute the traditional view that Troilus and Cressida was 
never produced on the stage. The first entry for Roberts, 
as we have seen, reads, as it is acted, meaning doubtless, as 
it was being acted by the Chamberlain’s Men in 1602-1603; 
the second entry of 1609 reads “as it was acted,” indicat¬ 
ing that it had been acted after the Chamberlain’s Men 
had become the King’s Men (May 19, 1603) and also at the 
public theater, the Globe. The variant title, rephrased for 
book buyers rather than theatergoers, reads: 

The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. Excellently 
expressing the beginning of their loues, with the conceited woo¬ 
ing of Pandarus Prince of Licia. 

The rest of the title page is identical, showing no change in 
type. 1 

1 Contrary to the traditional views of Malone and Fleay, 
bibliographical evidence proves that this title page and accom¬ 
panying preface are later than the title page bearing mention 
of the Globe. The signature at the bottom of the first page of 
the text of the play is marked A 2 ; therefore originally there was 
only one leaf before it, viz, the title page mentioning the Globe. 
The second title was printed with the preface on a half sheet — 
two leaves, the second signed *| 2 at the bottom of the preface 
page — the usual sign for additional matter later inserted. Fur¬ 
thermore the running head line The history of Troylus and Cresseida 
corresponds with the first title page, which in turn corresponds 
with the title in the S. R. entry for Bonion and Walley. Finally 
the early title bears a watermark like that in the rest of the book; 
the later title and preface have no watermark. Malone believed 
that as soon as the booksellers discovered that the play had been 
performed, they cancelled the preface and its accompanying 
title page, and inserted the words “As it was acted” on the title 
page. (See A. W. Pollard’s refutation of this view, Shakespeare 
Folios and Quartos, 1909, pp. 77-78; also Henrietta Bartlett’s A 
Census of Shakespeare's Plays in Quarto, 1916, p. 114.) 


viii TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 

The Quarto Preface. We come now to the most inter¬ 
esting epistle to the reader, which is the only known preface 
to a Shakespeare play issued during the author’s lifetime. 
It is obviously what would be called today a publishers’ 
blurb, written to urge readers to buy the new play of 
Troilus and Cressida because of its great excellence, as well 
as that of its author, in comedy. 

The phrase “neuer stal’d with the Stage, neuer clapper¬ 
clawed with the palmes of the vulger” has been interpreted 
by some critics to mean that the play had never been 
produced on a stage — a view that is no longer acceptable. 
In view of the external evidences, it is likely that the play 
had been produced, but had not proved a popular success, 
and that the publishers were trying to turn this fact to good 
account by telling readers how fortunate they were that 
this play, which was caviare to the general, had escaped the 
multitude, since there was “no comedy more witty,” not 
even the best comedy of Terence or Plautus. They also 
go on to congratulate prospective readers that the play had 
been secured from the “grand possessors.” This phrase 
has been interpreted by some to mean the King’s company; 
by others, Shakespeare’s friends of rank who had private 
transcripts. Lee and others think the phrase indicates 
that the copy had been stolen, but the simpler inferences 
are, as Alexander (Library, Fourth Series IX, pp. 276 ff.) 
suggests, that the passage properly read does not refer 
simply to this one comedy, but to Shakespeare’s plays in 
general, which were guarded jealously by the Company, 
but when stolen or released for printing had proved popular 
with the book-buying public; hence the publishers in 
offering Troilus and Cressida were merely capitalizing the 
well-established favor of Shakespeare’s plays. That the 
Shakespearean Company henceforth succeeded in keeping 
their plays from publication is witnessed by no further 
appearance of a Shakespeare quarto in print until the 1622 
Quarto of Othello, the year before the First Folio. 

The amusing preface gives us other valuable information. 
(1) It tells us how Elizabethan publishers regarded the 


INTRODUCTION 


IX 


play, not as a chronicle play, or a tragedy, but as a comedy. 

(2) It testifies that the author’s comedies were popular 
with readers as well as with theatergoers, a proof, if proof 
were needed, that Shakespeare was valued in his own day. 

(3) It reveals that this quarto and doubtless other quartos 
commonly sold for a testerne, or sixpence. (4) It prog¬ 
nosticates in an astonishing way the future scramble for 
Shakespeare quartos. But not even the imagination of 
Shakespeare himself could have predicted the amazing 
increase in monetary value of a Troilus and Cressida quarto. 
There are in existence at this writing fifteen quartos of 
Troilus and Cressida — four with the first title page, 
eleven with the second title page. Perhaps one of the 
finest of all Shakespeare quartos extant is the superb uncut 
Troilus and Cressida, with the first title page, which 
Dr. Rosenbach acquired from the Holford collection at 
Dorchester House, and now values at $135,000. In three 
centuries and a quarter the price of the little pamphlet 
containing Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida has risen 
from an Elizabethan sixpence, about fifty or sixty cents in 
present American money, to a respectable small fortune. 

The Folio Text. Troilus and Cressida was the cause of 
trouble and irregularity again when the compositors were 
setting up the play for its second printing in the First 
Folio of 1623. The editors originally intended it to follow 
Romeo and Juliet in the third section of Tragedies, but 
after three pages had been set up, something went wrong. 
It is believed that Heming and Condell, the editors, were 
having trouble over the copyright still held by Henry 
Walley, the surviving member of the quarto publishing 
firm. At any rate, as Professor Adams has conclusively 
shown, the printers, expecting ultimately to continue the 
play, left a gap (pp. 78-108) and went on with Julius 
Coesar. Before the end of the book had been reached, 
Timon was selected to fill this gap. After the plays had 
been printed and the preliminary pages including the 
Catalogue or list of plays, which omits the title of Troilus 
and Cressida, had been run off, the editors decided once 


X 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


more to go ahead with the play. As there was no other 
place for it, it was inserted in No Man’s Land between the 
Histories and Tragedies, where it remains in unpaged form. 
The first three pages left over from the first venture bear 
the title, The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida; the pages 
set up after the interruption, merely Troylus and Cressida. 
Though the title and first two following headlines call the 
play a tragedy, and the running headlines in the quarto 
term it a history, we may not take either classification as 
authoritative, for Cymbeline, certainly not a tragedy, the 
folio editors placed as the concluding play of the tragedy 
section; and the term history as used in the quarto title 
means story, not chronicle history. Copyright difficulties, 
therefore, finally overcome, seem to have caused these 
irregularities in the printing of the play for the Folio of 
1623. 

The Globe Text. The quarto and the folio texts of 
the play are substantially the same, but their origins and 
relationship are still highly obscure. The traditional view, 
which Clark and Wright, the editors of the Globe, accept, 
is that both texts came from a common manuscript, that 
the folio text was not printed from the quarto, and that the 
textual differences between them are caused by revisions 
which the author himself and also a subsequent reviser 
made. A recent reexamination of the problem by Alexan¬ 
der leads to the conclusion that the folio text consisted of a 
quarto text corrected from a manuscript in the possession 
of the folio editors, Heming and Condell. The folio, 
generally the better text, restores some passages omitted 
in the quarto. The quarto has a few improved readings, 
and supplies some lines omitted in the folio. Alexander 
thinks that the quarto, and Chambers that the folio, was 
printed from Shakespeare’s manuscript. A modern text, 
like the Globe, reprinted here, draws from both texts, and 
makes a judicious selection from variant readings. 


INTRODUCTION 


xi 


Date 

Troilus and Cressida may be dated 1601 at the earliest, 
and at the latest, February, 1603. The “prologue arm’d” 
(Prologue 23) of Troilus and Cressida is accepted by 
modern scholars as a definite reference to Ben Jonson’s 
Poetaster, which was produced in 1601. In February of 
1603 James Roberts in applying for a license to print 
Shakespeare’s play noted that it had already been acted 
by his company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. The year 
1602, therefore, is a generally accepted date for the com¬ 
position of the play. 

Sources 

The immediate sources from which Shakespeare derived 
his Troilus and Cressida cannot be determined beyond 
question. There were available Latin, English, and French 
translations of Homer, Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde 
(1385), Lydgate’s Troy Book (1400), Caxton’s Recuyell of 
the Historyes of Troy (1474), and numerous Elizabethan 
versions of the Troy story in poetry, prose-romance, and 
drama. An exhaustive examination and comparison of 
these sources by several modern scholars have brought 
the following generally accepted conclusions: (1) Shake¬ 
speare consulted Homer slightly if at all. (2) he did 
not use Chapman’s translation of Homer as earlier 
critics believed, for the comedy is a dramatization of 
Caxton’s medieval version of the Troy story, not of the 
Homeric original. Moreover, only certain books of Chap¬ 
man’s translation were available before 1602; the com¬ 
plete work not until 1611. (3) Caxton’s Recuyell , rather 

than Lydgate’s Troy Book, contains the version most 
closely and fully resembling the play, and therefore if any 
single work is to be considered a primary source, it is the 
account which Caxton translated for his Recuyell from the 
French prose work of Raoul le Fevre. 1 (4) Chaucer’s 

1 Shakespeare may well have consulted Creed’s edition of 
Caxton (1596). 


xii TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 

romantic poem probably served as a supplementary 
source. 

Recent studies, however, by Tatlock and Rollins have 
demonstrated that the tale of Troilus and Cressida was the 
most popular love story of Elizabethan times. Adams 
states that between 1559-1599 “records, which are far 
from complete, show that it had received dramatic han¬ 
dling at least twenty-nine times” before Shakespeare’s. 
Four accounts within a few years of Shakespeare’s play 
may be found in Robert Greene’s Euphues his Censure to 
Philautus (1587), in Willobie His Avisa (1594), in Thomas 
Heywood’s play Iron Age (1596?) and in the play which 
Dekker and Chettle wrote for Henslowe in April, 1599. 
The wealth of contemporary material at hand, therefore, 
gives weight to Lawrence’s statement that “Shakespeare 
would have been familiar with the tale of Cressida if he 
had never read a line of Chaucer.” Moreover, there are 
such close relations between Heywood’s Iron Age and 
Shakespeare’s play, that critics believe either that Hey wood 
and Shakespeare consulted in common an earlier play, or 
that one borrowed from the other — either Shakespeare 
from Heywood, as Tatlock thinks, or Heywood from 
Shakespeare, as Chambers contends. 

A chart illustrating the growth of the story out of 
Homeric materials, and an excerpt from Caxton’s version, 
will be found in the appended notes with a more detailed 
account of source materials, and with passages from 
Elizabethan literature which illustrate how Cressida was 
regarded in Shakespeare’s day. In the sixteenth century 
she no longer appears as the piteous lady of Chaucer’s 
romance, but as a byword for faithlessness and harlotry. 
We may be fairly certain, then, that Shakespeare, as was 
so often his practice when confronted by the task of writing 
a play, went to work upon dramatic materials of Troilus 
and Cressida already at hand, which, as in the case of the 
old Hamlet play, he revamped and revised during the 
years from 1601 to 1603. 


INTRODUCTION 


xiii 


Stage History 

Recorded performances of Shakespeare’s Troilus and 
Cressida cannot be discovered in the annals of the British 
theater until over three hundred years after the early 
productions, which the Stationers’ Register and the first 
issue of the quarto of 1609 tell us had been acted by 
Shakespeare’s company before and after 1603. 

The theme, however, did not disappear entirely from the 
theaters. In 1679 Dry den followed his successful rework¬ 
ing of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra in All for Love, 
or The World Well Lost, with a similar revision of Troilus 
and Cressida, or Truth Found too Late. In his preface 
Dryden gives a good account of the alterations he thought 
necessary to transform “that heap of rubbish,” as he styles 
Shakespeare’s version, into a well-made play. His most 
important character changes are the elaboration of 
Andromache, and the radical alteration of Cressida as 
faithful throughout in her love for Troilus. This reversal, 
one might say perversion, of the traditional Cressida per¬ 
mitted Dryden to add sentimental heroics to the love 
scenes, and to write an effective fifth act in which Troilus 
accuses Cressida of infidelity; Cressida protests her 
innocence, Diomedes shows Troilus a ring in proof that he 
has possessed her; thereupon Cressida stabs herself. 
Troilus is finally convinced of the truth too late; he kills 
Diomedes, and is himself slain by Achilles. Dryden 
maintains Cressida’s innocence by having Calchas compel 
Cressida to entice Diomedes in order that father and 
daughter may escape to Troy. Troilus sees her giving his 
ring (not a sleeve, as in Shakespeare) to Diomedes, and 
believes her false. To heighten the contention scenes, 
Dryden intensifies the strife between Achilles and Ajax, 
and introduces a prolonged quarrel between Hector and 
Troilus. To suit the taste of his Restoration listeners he 
made the Pandarus scenes much more lewd and suggestive 
than Shakespeare’s. They are not at all in keeping with 
Dryden’s conception of a loyal, innocent, and much suffer- 


XIV 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


ing Cressida in the last act. Dryden’s version continued 
to be produced in the London theaters through the first 
third of the eighteenth century. An unsuccessful attempt 
at revival in London was made by Charles Fry in 1907. 
In December, 1912, the Elizabethan Stage Society, assisted 
by the Streatham Shakespeare Players under the direction 
of Mr. William Poel, gave a performance at the King’s 
Hall, Covent Garden: 

The stage was set in tiers, and a tent which corresponded 
to the wings, served as a hiding place for the sulking, top- 
booted, yeoman-like Achilles. The Greeks were presented as 
Elizabethan soldiers, the Trojans in the flamboyant design 
of Elizabethan masque costume. Patroclus affected a nasty 
stutter and smoked a diminutive clay pipe; Thersites was 
dressed as an Elizabethan clown. 

Mr. Poel, a pioneer in the effort to present Shakespeare 
plays as they were originally produced, that is, con¬ 
tinuously on an unlocalized, timeless, and unrealistic 
platform stage, gave an excellent interpretation of Pan- 
darus. 

In March, 1922, Troilus and Cressida was again produced 
by the Marlowe Society at Cambridge, a performance 
which one spectator declared threw a great light on its 
meaning. It was as if Shakespeare wished to show the 
disenchanting side of war, with Thersites a running com¬ 
mentary on the heroic period. The expression of beefy 
stupidity assumed throughout by Ajax was a masterpiece, 
and gave a splendid point to all the bating which he has 
to endure, particularly from the sardonic Thersites. 

Troilus and Cressida completed in the following year the 
production at the Old Vic of all of Shakespeare’s plays. 
On November 7, 1923, in celebration of the Tercentenary 
of the First Folio, Mr. Atkins presented the play in Eliza¬ 
bethan costumes to a distinguished audience with Princess 
Mary in attendance. The play was so successful that it 
continued a second week “with good and enthusiastic 
audiences.” Doris Westwood, who played a minor role. 


INTRODUCTION 


xv 


states that when memorizing her lines and attending 
rehearsals she thought the play a bore, but at the end of the 
performances she confessed it had grown upon her and she 
had come to love it. (A Diary of the Old Vic., London, 
1926, p. 58 ff.) 

On the evening of June 17, 1916, Troilus and Cressida 
made its first appearance on an American stage at New 
Haven under the auspices of the Yale University Dramatic 
Association. Under the direction of Mr. Edgar M. Woolley 
the production was staged in a modern manner “which 
aimed higher than a bare platform stage and lower than 
the photography of nature in three dimensions and strove 
to create broad emotionally suggestive effects without 
demanding too much either of imagination or reality.” 
The program offered the explanation that the players 
were interpreting the drama frankly as a burlesque, as 
they believed that Shakespeare’s comic irony was inten¬ 
tional. 

On April 16, 18, and on June 11, 1927, Troilus and Cres¬ 
sida was again played in America by students at Rockford 
College, Illinois. This noteworthy production was directed 
by Mr. Edward L. Davison who had taken part in the 
performance of the Marlowe Society at Cambridge. Over 
all the barriers of language and convention “the play made 
its way with sure and stirring effect — Troilus, the young 
idealist, puzzled by a militant and disintegrating world, 
had profound significance in these years following the War; 
the situation fitted into the actual circumstances.” 
(Shakespeare Association Bulletin, Dec., 1927.) 

These records bearing witness to the recent popularity 
of Troilus and Cressida as an acting play, are more than 
paralleled if we turn to France and Germany. At the 
Odeon on March 20, 1912, and again in 1913 the play, 
translated into French prose by M. Emile Vedel, was 
presented in eighteen scenes with very effective stage 
settings (La Petite Illustration, 1913). The French 
reviewers found it a beautiful spectacle, infinitely diverting 
— a sort of fresque , half-burlesque, half-tragic, which 


XVI 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


aroused such good-hearted laughter as rarely greets any 
modern work. It was as though Shakespeare had indulged 
in an enormous laugh accompanied by a sympathetic pity 
for the poor human beings we are. 

To Germany belongs the credit for the earliest and long¬ 
est tradition of Troilus and Cressida dramatizations in 
modern times. Beginning with 1898 we can trace in the 
Shakespeare Jahrbuch 1 at least 150 performances up to 
1930, given in the principal cities by at least twenty 
different companies. From these records we may readily 
conclude that whenever the play has been staged as a 
tragedy it has proved unsuccessful, but when played as a 
comedy has met with the same acclaim it has received in 
England and France. Since 1925 it has sometimes been 
played more often than Love’s Labour’s Lost, Merry Wives , 
King John, or The Tempest, and in some years, more often 
than Macbeth, Julius Ceesar, or Richard III. In 1925 Otto 
Falckenburg’s production, played twenty-four times, was 
thought by critics well able to stand comparison with any 
contemporary Shakespearean production. 


2. DRAMATIC STRUCTURE 

The dramatic structure of Troilus and Cressida has been 
most roundly denounced by the late Brander Matthews: 

In more than half of the piece the love story is allowed to 
drop out of sight, while we are distracted by a gallimaufry of 
debates and battles. The play is a patchwork of amorous 
intrigues, of wrangling oratory and of gladiatorial combats; 
the final battle scene is puerile, not to call it infantile, and it 
belongs to a very primitive period of dramatic art. The play 
is an incoherent and fragmentary jumble, with no unity of 
action, no continuity of interest, no dominating figure on which 
we may center our attention. Uninteresting as a whole, it is 
infrequently interesting in any of its episodes. Dramatur¬ 
gically it is the least successful of all the plays accredited to 
Shakespeare; and this is the reason why it long ago vanished 

1 Vols. 35, 36, 41, 53, 57, 61, 64, 65. 


INTRODUCTION 


XVII 


from the stage. The deficiency of action and the absence of 
motive combine to make the drama dull in any actual per¬ 
formance. 1 

A more careful consideration, however, may redeem the 
play from such a sweeping and hostile judgment. If 
Troilus and Cressida does not possess the structural unities 
of a “well-made play” according to the Scribe-Pinero 
formula, it demonstrably has, what is of more value, a 
carefully worked out thematic and atmospheric unity. 
As the title asserts, the main plot is not the fight over 
Helen by the Greeks and Trojans, but the love story which 
pervades the whole — beginning, middle, and end from 
(1) Troilus, the infatuated lover of the first scene, (2) Troi¬ 
lus, the disillusioned lover, to (3) Troilus, awakened 
warrior of the last scene. The secondary plot, the camp- 
story, is not merely a parallel with no bearing upon the 
main plot, but emphasizes the same theme, namely, the 
unmanning of men by their infatuation for wanton women. 
In the camp Helen is the faithless counterpart of Cressida, 
as unworthy of the sacrifice made for her as the devotion 
of Troilus is wasted on Cressida. Throughout, moreover, 
Shakespeare emphasizes the points of resemblance between 
the two stories by employing Thersites as a running fire of 
caustic abuse. Throughout Thersites keeps hammering 
upon the central idea that the whole argument is “Nothing 
but lechery! All incontinent varlets!” Hector believes 
that Helen is not worth the struggle, and even Troilus, 
blind to his own infatuation, exclaims like Thersites: 

Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be fair 

When with your blood you daily paint her thus (i. 1. 95-96). 

We observe that the chieftains, like Troilus, are also 
warriors of words rather than deeds, that their long 
harangues are silly sentiments ending only with such 
obvious platitudes as “Troy in our weakness stands, not 
in her strength.” Their thoughts are preoccupied with 

1 Shakspere as a Playwright, pp. 230-231. 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


xviii 

amatory rather than military conquests. Paris (iii. i.) 
does not fight that day because Helen forbids. Andro¬ 
mache and Cassandra cry out to Hector to “unarm.” 
Achilles, entangled in a love affair with Polyxena, a daugh¬ 
ter of the enemy king, gives up his decision to fight on 
receiving a letter from her. Even iEneas exhibits the same 
sentiment when he states that he could defer the heavy 
business of state had he such occasion to lie abed as Paris. 
In the scene in which the Greek warriors salute the wanton 
Cressida with kisses, Ulysses, though enjoying the oppor¬ 
tunity, as roundly condemns the wantonness of Cressida 
as Thersites condemns the lechery underlying the whole 
play. All of these minor love intrigues of the warriors are 
harmonious variations interplaying with the central theme 
of the love story. In addition to this thematic relation¬ 
ship between the two plots, we see that the resolution of 
the Troilus plot is dependent upon the lust for Cressida 
of Diomedes, another lecher of the Greek camp. Pan- 
darus is suffering from an ache in his bones as the result 
of his amatory excesses. In view of the skilful working 
out of theme, tone, and atmosphere, we can hardly accept 
the view that Shakespeare’s artistic genius was asleep when 
he wrote Troilus and Cressida, or that the dramatic struc¬ 
ture of the play has no unity of purpose or meaning. The 
record of many successful performances of the play in re¬ 
cent years, outlined above, bears eloquent witness against 
Matthews’s assertion that it is a dull play which long ago 
vanished from the stage. 

Duration of the Action 

As Shakespeare wrote for a non-realistic stage, unham¬ 
pered by demands for strict chronological time, it is exceed¬ 
ingly doubtful that he laid out his plays according to a 
calendar of twenty-four hour days. Therefore, the tabular 
reckonings, which P. A. Daniel worked out so painstakingly 
for the action of each Shakespeare play, contain inevitable 
discrepancies. Shakespeare was interested not in clock 
time, but in imaginative or dramatic time. He is careful 


INTRODUCTION 


xix 


only to convince his audience that adequate, if unmeasured, 
time is passing for the course of the action. For example, 
if we apply the clock test to Othello, we find that the events 
could not possibly have taken place in the time allowed, 
but by his magic way of suggesting the passage of time, the 
poet creates the illusion of undetermined intervals and 
periods sufficient for the success of Iago’s prolonged in¬ 
trigue, so that we never think of raising the question of 
actual time at all. 

According to Daniel, Troilus and Cressida consumes 
four days, though there are discrepancies in Act II, Sc. 3, 
and Act III, Sc. 1 and 3 that prevent a completely con¬ 
vincing distribution. 

Day 1 . Act I, sc. 1 and 2. Interval. 

Day 2. Act I, sc. 3; Act II and Act III. 

Day 3. Act IV; Act V, sc. 1 and 2. 

Day 4. Act V, sc. 3-10. 


3. LANGUAGE, AUTHORSHIP, AND STYLE 

Troilus and Cressida has not been neglected by the dis¬ 
integrators of Shakespeare’s texts. Upon the doubtful 
grounds of a few stylistic differences that they discern in 
certain passages they contend that the work of other dram¬ 
atists can be discovered in the play. Fleay (1874) dis¬ 
covered three styles evincing that Shakespeare wrote parts 
of it at successive periods from 1594-1G07; in 1886 Fleay 
changed his mind in favor of an early play by Shakespeare, 
and another about 1593 with a subsequent revision by 
Shakespeare in 1602. Boyle (1901) believed Marston 
wrote the last two acts, and the prologue and the epilogue. 
Small (1899) also discerned non-Shakespearean passages. 
Robertson (1917) contended that the highly Latinized 
language, and the many unusual words, especially with 
such terminations as ion, ure, ive, ate, ance, characteristic 
of plays near the date 1602, were evidences of Chapman’s 
hand in the play. These conflicting views, which are 


XX 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


destructive of one another, have not been generally 
accepted. They are based on a priori assumptions by the 
critic as to what Shakespeare’s style is, and on the rejec¬ 
tion of any passages that do not reach the critic’s standard, 
or that are personally distasteful to him. It is safer to 
believe that Shakespeare wrote in many styles, good, bad, 
and indifferent according to his moods, and also according 
to the requirements of the tone, the themes, the characters, 
and the purpose of his play. His known versatility should 
make us hesitate to deny to him any lines in Troilus and 
Cressida, even the prologue and the epilogue which most 
frequently have been ascribed to another, and yet are in 
full accord with the intent and tone of the play. 

The style of Troilus and Cressida has been for critics a 
puzzle only second to that of the play itself. On the one 
hand are passages which for splendor of imagery and 
majesty of cadence it would be hard to surpass and futile 
to deny as the master poet Shakespeare’s very own. On 
the other hand, if we compare the play with Hamlet , the 
brilliance of style seems wasted upon such a relative 
paucity of thought. The artificiality, the shallowness of 
the characters so deprive them of our sympathy and 
interest that we cannot take with full seriousness the high- 
flown speeches they deliver. As Wells neatly summarizes 
the difficulties: 

At least three views are possible in the interpretation of the 
heroic harangues of Ulysses, Nestor, and Agamemnon: two 
extreme positions and a moderate one. We may, with several 
critics, hold that Ulysses voices the sentiments of the poet 
himself, and take both his ideas and his manner in complete 
seriousness. We may conceivably hold the speeches so elabo¬ 
rate as to be deliberately burlesque. These are the extreme 
views. If a moderate position is preferred we shall believe 
that the poet is in fact sincere so far as the surface glamor of 
style and imagery is concerned, and even sincere in approving 
the general purport of the ideas, but that in his judgment of 
character and of the intellectual background of the scenes, he 
finds the speakers absurd and their entire outlook on life 
ridiculous. Shakespeare may well have applauded Ulysses 


INTRODUCTION 


xxi 


as a magician in words while despising him as a thinker, as a 
man, and even as a serious artist . 1 

4. INTERPRETATIONS 

After Hamlet, the play of Troilus and Cressida may be 
regarded as the most difficult to interpret of all of Shake¬ 
speare’s plays. Coleridge thought it the hardest to charac¬ 
terize. Written and accepted as a comedy in Shakespeare’s 
day, it has been traditionally viewed in criticism as a 
tragedy, or as a serious “problem” comedy. Critics of the 
play may be divided for convenience into four schools: 
(a) the didactic, (6) the autobiographical, (c) the topical, 
and (d) the historical. 

(a) The didactic school believes that a dramatist writes 
plays to expound a philosophy or to inculcate moral teach¬ 
ings. It assumes that Shakespeare wrote his dramas in 
order to disclose his own philosophical reflections and opin¬ 
ions. Troilus and Cressida , when scrutinized for such inner 
meanings, is susceptible of a bewildering and infinite variety. 
We need cite here but two interpretations of this kind, one 
of the earliest, by Ulrici (1876), and the latest by G. Wilson 
Knight (1930). Ulrici thinks Shakespeare wrote the play 
to reveal the moral blemish and defects of Greek civilization 
in contrast with the pristine virtues of Christianity, and to 
warn Elizabethans of the deep schism in religious and moral 
life which must come as soon as the people became capti¬ 
vated with Greek culture. Knight, the most recent critic 
of this school, in his metaphysical essay on the Philosophy 
of Troilus and Cressida contends that Shakespeare is illus¬ 
trating “the intuition and intelligence opposition” — the 
Love theme, romantic faith, in struggle with War, cynical 
intellect — the Trojans standing for “human beauty and 
worth,” the Greeks for “the bestial and stupid elements 
of man.” Many other ingenious interpretations of this sort 
may be found in other critics of this school — all of them at 

1 Dr. Henry W. Wells has kindly allowed me to quote this 
passage from his unpublished manuscript on Shakespeare’s style. 


XXII 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


variance with and destructive of one another. Any thought¬ 
ful reader of the play can work out for himself similar 
schemes and significances of his own if he wishes to pon¬ 
der upon the sententious passages of the play regardless 
of its meaning as drama to an Elizabethan audience. 

(6) The autobiographical school is bent upon viewing 
Troilus and Cressida as the inner revelation of Shake¬ 
speare’s own soul. George Brandes, the Danish critic, in 
William Shakesjpeare, and Frank Harris in The Man 
Shakespeare are typical representatives of this kind of 
interpretation. According to them Shakespeare’s plays 
are “true confessions” in which the poet exhibits to the 
world the bleeding pageant of his own heart. In the early 
years of the new century when Troilus was written there 
ensued a period of melancholy in Shakespeare’s life, and his 
soul imbibed poison from everything; he railed against the 
disillusions of life and perversely revelled in contempt for 
mankind. “Never had he been so downcast and dispirited, 
never had he felt so keenly the emptiness of life.” Troilus 
and Cressida is the expression of this disillusion. Going 
further into highly fantastic biographical conjectures, 
Harris sees Cressida as Shakespeare’s faithless lady-love, 
Mary Fitton, and the poet as pouring out his rancour 
against her and his rival poet, Chapman. This kind of 
interpretation braves the great dangers of identifying 
Shakespeare’s own personality with the imaginative crea¬ 
tions of his plays. Yet many noted critics entertain it, or 
lapse into it. Even as objective a critic as Chambers writes, 
“In Troilus and Cressida a disillusioned Shakespeare turns 
back upon his own former ideals of heroism and romance 
and questions them.” Similarly Tucker Brooke writes, 
“These two lovers made special appeal to a dramatist who 
in the period of Hamlet and Troilus and Cressida, had lost 
his joy in successful people.” Boas, who has written the 
best character analyses of the play, says, “Only in a mood 
of the bitterest disenchantment with the world could such 
a character [Thersites^ have been conceived.” Lawrence, 
however, has recently given reasons for believing that 


INTRODUCTION 


xxiii 

there is little connection between Shakespeare’s plays and 
his personal moods and opinions. 

(c) The topical school believes that the play, or a portion 
of it, is a veiled satire or allegory of contemporary events. 
Some critics find references to Shakespeare’s rival drama¬ 
tists, and The Wars of the Theatres; others to political events 
which took place during the early years of the century. 
According to the first view, Ajax represents Jonson, and 
Thersites is Dekker — other critics say Marston; the 
“physic” given “to the great Myrmidon,” Achilles (i, 3, 
378; ii, 3, 34) is the “purge” administered by Shakespeare 
to Jonson, referred to in The Return from Parnassus. The 
phrase “rank Thersites with his mastic jaws” is supposed 
to refer to Dekker’s Satiromastix (1601). In Histriomastix 
(1599) by Marston and others occurs a dialogue between 
Troilus and Cressida with the line “When he Shakes his 
furious Spear e” which is said to refer to Shakespeare’s 
play, though the date, and the frequent occurrences in 
drama of shake and spear together in a line, give this view 
little weight. 

Wallace advances the theory that Ajax is Kempe, the 
former jester of the Globe Company, who after a return 
from Rome had joined Henslowe’s rival company at the 
Rose. A full knowledge of contemporary history, he 
thinks, would clear up much of the local allusion, which 
relates not to the Blackfriars theater quarrel referred to 
above, but to that between the men of the Globe and the 
Rose over Kempe’s transfer of allegiance. 

Acheson brings forward another untenable theory that 
Shakespeare wrote the play as a splenetic attack upon 
Chapman, who in publishing parts of his translation of 
Homer (1597) had championed the Greek heroes. 

Tucker Brooke imagines that “Shakespeare, is however 
subconsciously anatomising the England of the dying 
Elizabeth: within the walls the febrile Essex type of de¬ 
cadent chivalry; without, the strident go-getters of the new 
dispensation: Cecil — Ulysses and Ralegh — Diomedes 
. . . that he sensed in Thersites the lowering shadow of 


XXIV 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


Prynne and the iconoclasts, and foresaw in Pandarus the 
portent of the scandalous Carr, Earl of Somerset.” 

Though there are in Shakespeare’s plays indubitable 
occasional references to contemporary theatrical and 
political events, as, for example, in Hamlet’s conversations 
with the players and with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, 
it is doubtful whether the topical school of critics will be 
able to work out historical parallels and allegories upon 
which they can agree among themselves, much less con¬ 
vince others that Shakespeare wrote with any such domi¬ 
nant purpose in mind. 

(d) The historical school endeavors to discover what 
Troilus and Cressida meant to the theatergoing public of 
Shakespeare’s day, and by inference what Shakespeare 
intended to do when he wrote the play as a stage produc¬ 
tion for his company. These critics believe that Shake¬ 
speare’s principal object as a dramatist was not to expound 
philosophy, nor to write confession, not to allegorize con¬ 
temporary events, but to write a successful play. From 
this point of view Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida was 
not a popular success like Hamlet or other tragedies of this 
period. Its mood falls short of the high seriousness de¬ 
manded of tragedy; it does not move to pity or terror, nor 
has it any characters that arouse our admiration, or com¬ 
mand our loyalty or affection. On the other hand, certain 
passages in the love story and in the war story are too 
serious for a sustained mood of comedy. The character¬ 
ization of the warriors, however, is anything but heroic — 
both Trojans and Greeks are fools — and throughout the 
drama the principals of both the love story and the war 
story are subjected to repeated and scurrilous ridicule by 
Pandarus and Thersites, who act as a chorus of devastating 
but witty rebuke. The difficulties of classifying Troilus 
and Cressida, therefore, are obvious. Charles Fry who in 
1907 produced the play in London, gave the best answer to 
Tatlock’s question as to whether it should be called a 
tragedy, a history, or a comedy: “Just a play.” The 
Elizabethans were not like critics, sticklers for rigid classi- 


INTRODUCTION 


XXV 


fication. Moreover, when we consider that Shakespeare 
in tragedy and comedy alike continually mixed countless 
moods grave and gay, as for example, in Romeo and 
Juliet, which ranges all the way from the smutty talk of the 
Capulet servants opening the play, to the romantic raptures 
of the balcony scene, we need not be surprised to find in 
Troilus and Cressida a few soulful love passages in the 
midst of some of the foulest raillery that was ever intro¬ 
duced into a play. Though the Elizabethans enjoyed these 
sharp contrasts, it is obvious why Troilus and Cressida 
did not attain popular success either at the court or 
at the Globe. The open obscenity of Thersites and the 
innuendo of Pandarus could not have been delivered in 
the presence of either Elizabeth or James. In spite of the 
latitude in talk and jest the court was not like that of 
Charles IPs, but maintained a social decorum above the 
indulgences of Troilus and Cressida. Similarly the play 
has little appeal for a Globe audience. There are no thrill¬ 
ing melodramatic scenes with which the tragedies are 
replete^ it is a play depending for its effects more upon 
speech than action, and the references both historical and 
comical are suited not to a general but to a specialized 
audience. It would, therefore, never be “ clapper-clawd 
withthepalmesof the vulger,”nor “ sullied with the smoaky 
breath of the multitude. ” Alexander has made the perti¬ 
nent suggestion that Shakespeare wrote Troilus and Cres¬ 
sida for the law students at the Inns of Court — just as he 
wrote Midsummer Night's Dream to celebrate the wedding of 
a noble lord and lady, and the Merry Wives for the Queen 
at the Windsor Christmas festivities. To the law students 
a broad comedy on the love story of Troilus and Cressida, 
and the war story as well, would not only be traversing 
familiar ground, but would be highly entertaining. The 
students would enjoy the high-flown passages of contention 
between the Greek and Trojan warriors, as well as the few 
lyrical interchanges between the lovers. Who can doubt 
that the innuendo of Pandarus and the raillery of Thersites 
would be greeted by them, not with indignation or resent- 



XXVI 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


ment, but with “inextinguishable laughter”? Many 
critics, however, have found the speeches of Thersites so 
repellent that they could conceive them only as the 
utterances of a poet completely disillusioned with life. 
And here some of the historical critics go astray because 
they have approached the play still under the spell of 
Homer’s noble characterizations, or Chaucer’s romantic 
and sympathetic delineation of the lovers, and have deeply 
resented what they deemed Shakespeare’s incorrigible deg¬ 
radation of both. The following condemnation from Root, 
the Chaucer enthusiast and scholar, may serve as repre¬ 
sentative of those who condemn Shakespeare because he 
ignored the tradition of Homer and Chaucer, or because 
he did not, as Henryson did, and as Dryden and Rollins 
demand that he should have done — punish Cressida in 
order to satisfy morality and poetic justice. 

If Chaucer has transformed the spirit of the story from 
pathetic sentimentality to half-ironical humor, Shakespeare, 
in his Troilus and Cressida, has approached it in a spirit of 
bitter cynicism and blackest pessimism. The love story, 
which is after all subordinate to the intrigues of the Grecian 
camp, has neither the romance of Boccaccio nor the humor 
of Chaucer; it is merely disgusting. Troilus remains much 
what he is in Chaucer; but Cressida has flung away even the 
pretense of virtue, and is merely a confessed wanton. The 
keen-sighted Ulysses reads her at a glance: — 

“Fie, fie upon her! 

There’s language in her eye, her cheek, her lip, 

Nay, her foot speaks; her wanton spirits look out 
At every joint and motive of her body. 

O, these encounterers, so glib of tongue. 

That give accosting welcome ere it comes, 

And wide unclasp the tables of their thoughts 
To every ticklish reader! set them down 
For sluttish spoils of opportunity. 

And daughters of the game” (iv. 5. 54-63). 

That the generous Troilus, own brother of Romeo, should 
break his heart for such a woman as this is but another proof 
of the essential mockery of human life. Pandarus has lost 


INTRODUCTION 


XXVll 


all his geniality and humor, and is merely repulsive. To 
crown all, the final worthlessness of Cressida, and the breaking 
heart of Troilus, are interpreted to usJiy-thfi. syphilitic mind 
of Thersites, whose whole function in the play is to defile 
with the foulness of his own imagination all that humanity 
holds high and sacred. 

Structurally as well hs spiritually the play is bad, redeemed 
only by a few noble speeches in the Grecian camp; and it 
remains one of the puzzles of criticism that such a work should 
ever have proceeded from the great soul of Shakespeare. 

(The Poetry of Chaucer, 1922, pp. 99-100.) 

To absolve Shakespeare from this diatribe we need only 
to remember that his interpretation was not original in 
substance, but merely that popularly known to his fellow 
Elizabethans. Long before Shakespeare thought of drama¬ 
tizing the story, the Greeks and Trojans had lost their 
heroic glamour. Paris and Troilus had become love-sick 
swains, and Helen and Cressida notorious wantons, ripe 
for the genius of Shakespeare to take them off with the 
devastating ridicule of Pandarus and Thersites. For proof 
let the teacher read aloud to a class of college men one of 
several masterpieces of abuse given by Shakespeare to 
Thersites, the uncrowned and unconquered king of railers, 
and he will be greeted with the same kind of laughter that 
the Thersites of the King’s Men would have aroused at the 
Inns of Court . 1 Moreover, the insistent praise of the play 
in the quarto preface, as a comedy comparable in wit with 
the plays of Plautus and Terence, should, it would seem,^ 
clinch the question as to how the play was conceived by 
the author and interpreted by publishers, playgoers, and 
readers in Shakespeare’s day. To interpret the talk of 
Pandarus and Thersites as proceeding from “bitter 
cynicism and blackest pessimism” is, therefore, to be 
blind to one aspect of Shakespeare’s comic muse. “It is 
impossible to believe Shakespeare so naive as to be wholly 

1 Alexander ( Library , Fourth Series, IX, p. 278) and Adams 
(Life of Shakespeare, p. 210) show how Shakespeare’s company 
often assisted at hilarious revels at the Inns of Court. 


XXV111 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


taken in by his own creations; and an insult to his intel¬ 
ligence to hold that he could write throughout such inflated 
and verbose speeches without some provocation of the 
spirit of comedy.” As Guha remarks, if we could change 
the names, and forget what Achilles was in Homer, and 
Cressida in Chaucer, we should realize that we have in 
Shakespeare’s play a witty comedy on Much Ado About 
Women. 

Viewed, then, as a broad comedy written to arouse 
Homeric laughter among the law students, the alternation 
of heroic, mock heroic, and scandalously ridiculous senti¬ 
ments is not incompatible with Shakespeare’s practice, 
but is the very stuff of comedy itself. If the play seems 
too sardonic for our taste, which prefers what Taylor has 
called the “milk-and-water diet” of Shaw’s Ccesar and 
Cleopatra, and Erskine’s Private Life of Helen of Troy, we 
have ample evidence in the preface of 1609 that the pub¬ 
lishers knew their readers were not afflicted with any such 
squeamishness. 

Stapfer, as long ago as 1880, came to similar conclusions 
when he wrote: 

Troilus and Cressida is, to sum up, the playful recreation 
with which a great genius amused himself in his lighter moods, 
when, finding in the traditions of the two lovers and of the 
Trojan war a framework that struck his fancy, he filled it up, 
somewhat hastily indeed, but lavishing upon it all he has 
taught us to expect from him, of dramatic life and wealth of 
ideas, of wit, of pathos and of poetry. To seek for any deep 
hidden meaning in this play implies an utter misconception of 
its character. In order to appreciate it, it is necessary to enter 
into Shakespeare’s humour and frankly to throw off all literary 
and moral preconceptions, without pretending to greater seri¬ 
ousness than he did himself. Then our admiration can be 
freely given to a poet who is so perfectly distinct from all his 
characters, and is so completely independent and at his ease, 
moulding his subject after his sovereign will and pleasure and 
we are of one mind with Goethe when he said to Eckermann, 
“ If you wish to know Shakespeare’s utter freedom of thought, 
read Troilus and Cressida.” 


THE EPISTLE , or PREFACE TO 
THE QUARTO 

A NEUER WRITER, TO AN EUER 
READER. NEWES. 

Eternall reader, you haue heere a new play, neuer stal’d 
with the Stage, neuer clapper-clawd with the palmes of the 
vulger, and yet passing full of the palme comicall; for it is 
a birth of your braine, that neuer vnder-tooke any thing 
commicall, vainely: And were but the vaine names of 
commedies changde for the titles of Commodities, or of 
Playes for Pleas; you should see all those grand censors, 
that now stile them such vanities, flock to them for the 
maine grace of their grauities: especially this authors 
Commedies, that are so fram’d to the life, that they serue 
for the most common Commentaries, of all the actions of 
our liues shewing such a dexteritie, and power of witte, 
that the most displeased with Playes, are pleasd with his 
Commedies. And all such dull and heauy-witted world¬ 
lings, as were neuer capable of the witte of a Commedie, 
comming by report of them to his representations, haue 
found that witte there, that they neuer found in them 
selues, and haue parted betterwittied then they came: 
feeling an edge of witte set vpon them, more then euer they 
dreamed they had braine to grinde it on. So much and such 
sauored Salt of witte is in his Commedies, that they seeme 
(for their height of pleasure) to be borne in that sea that 
brought forth Venus. Amongst all there is none more 
witty then this: And had I time I would comment vpon 
it, though I know it needs not, (for so much as will make 
you thinke your testerne well bestowd) but for so much 
worth, as euen poore I know to be stuft in it. It deserues 
such a labour, as well as the best Commedy in Terence or 
Plautus. And beleeue this, that when hee is gone, and 


xxix 


XXX 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


his Commedies out of sale, you will scramble for them, and 
set vp a new English Inquisition. Take this for a warning, 
and at the perrill of your pleasures losse, and Iudgements, 
refuse not, nor like this the lesse, for not being sullied, with 
the smoaky breath of the multitude; but thanke fortune for 
the scape it hath made amongst you. Since by the grand 
possessors wills I beleeue you should haue prayd for them 
rather then beene prayd. And so I leaue all such to bee 
prayd for (for the states of their wits healths) that will not 
praise it. Vale. 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


DRAMATIS PERSONAE 


.His sons 

A bastard son of Priam 
. Trojan commanders 


Priam .King of Troy 

Hector 
Troilus 
Paris 
Deiphobus 
Helenus 
Margarelon . 

ASneas 
Antenor 

Calchas, A Trojan priest, taking part with the Greeks 

Pandarus .Uncle to Cressida 

Agamemnon .The Grecian general 

Menelaus .His brother 

Achilles 
Ajax 
Ulysses 
Nestor 
Diomedes 
Patroclus 
Thersites .... 

Alexander . . . 

Servant to Troilus 
Servant to Paris 
Servant to Diomedes 

Helen .Wife to Menelaus 

Andromache . Wife to Hector 

Cassandra .Daughter to Priam; a prophetess 

Cressida . Daughter to Calchas 

Trojan and Greek Soldiers, and Attendants 


Grecian commanders 


A deformed and scurrilous Grecian 
. Servant to Cressida 


SCENE — Troy, and the Grecian camp 



















TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


THE PROLOGUE 

In Troy there lies the scene. From isles of Greece 
The princes orgulous, their high blood chafed, 

Have to the port of Athens sent their ships, 

Fraught with the ministers and instruments 
Of cruel war : sixty and nine, that wore 
Their crownets regal, from the Athenian bay 
Put forth toward Phrygia, and their vow is made 
To ransack Troy, within whose strong immures 
The ravish’d Helen, Menelaus’ queen, 

With wanton Paris sleeps ; and that’s the quarrel. 10 
To Tenedos they come; 

And the deep-drawing barks do there disgorge 
Their warlike fraughtage : now on Dardan plains 
The fresh and yet unbruised Greeks do pitch 
Their brave pavilions : Priam’s six-gated city, 

Dardan, and Timbria, Helias, Chetas, Troien, 

And Antenorides, with massy staples, 

And corresponsive and fulfilling bolts, 

Sperr up the sons of Troy. 

Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits, 20 

On one and other side, Trojan and Greek, 

Sets all on hazard: and hither am I come 
A prologue arm’d, but not in confidence 
Of author’s pen or actor’s voice, but suited 
In like conditions as our argument, 

To tell you, fair beholders, that our play 
l 


2 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


[Act I 


Leaps o’er the vaunt and firstlings of those broils, 
Beginning in the middle; starting thence away 
To what may be digested in a play. 

Like, or find fault; do as your pleasures are : 30 

Now good or bad, ’tis but the chance of war. 


ACT I 

Scene I — Troy. Before Priam’s palace 
Enter Pandarus and Troilus 

Tro. Call here my varlet; I’ll unarm again : 

Why should I war without the walls of Troy, 

That find such cruel battle here within ? 

Each Trojan that is master of his heart, 

Let him to field ; Troilus, alas! hath none ! 

Pan. Will this gear ne’er be mended ? 

Tro. The Greeks are strong and skilful to their 
strength, 

Fierce to their skill and to their fierceness valiant, 

But I am weaker than a woman’s tear, 

Tamer than sleep, fonder than ignorance, 10 

Less valiant than the virgin in the night. 

And skilless as unpractised infancy. 

Pan. Well, I have told you enough of this : for 
my part, I’ll not meddle nor make no farther. He 
that will have a cake out of the wheat must needs 
tarry the grinding. 

Tro. Have I not tarried ? 

Pan. Ay, the grinding; but you must tarry the 
bolting. 



Scene I] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


3 


Tro. Have I not tarried ? 

Pan. Ay, the bolting; but you must tarry the 
leavening. 

Tro. Still have I tarried. 

Pan. Ay, to the leavening; but here’s yet in the 
word ‘hereafter,’ the kneading, the making of the 
cake, the heating of the oven, and the baking; nay, 
you must stay the cooling too, or you may chance to 
burn your lips. 

Tro. Patience herself, what goddess e’er she be, 
Doth lesser blench at sufferance than I do. 

At Priam’s royal table do I sit; 

And when fair Cressid comes into my thoughts, — 
So, traitor ! — ‘ When she comes ! ’ — When is she 
thence ? 

Pan. Well, she looked yesternight fairer than 
ever I saw her look, or any woman else. 

Tro. I was about to tell thee : — when my heart, 
As wedged with a sigh, would rive in twain, 

Lest Hector or my father should perceive me, 

I have, as when the sun doth light a storm, 

Buried this sigh in wrinkle of a smile : 

But sorrow, that is crouch’d in seeming gladness, 

Is like that mirth fate turns to sudden sadness. 

Pan. An her hair were not somewhat darker than 
Helen’s — well, go to — there were no more com¬ 
parison between the women: but, for my part, she 
is my kinswoman; I would not, as they term it, 
praise her : but I would somebody had heard her talk 
yesterday, as I did. I will not dispraise your sister 
Cassandra’s wit, but — 

Tro. O Pandarus ! I tell thee, Pandarus, — 


20 

30 

40 


50 


4 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


[Act I 


When I do tell thee, there my hopes lie drown’d. 

Reply not in how many fathoms deep 

They lie indrench’d. I tell thee, I am mad 

In Cressid’s love : thou answer’st ‘ she is fair 

Pour’st in the open ulcer of my heart 

Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her voice. 

Handiest in thy discourse, O, that her hand, 

In whose comparison all whites are ink 
Writing their own reproach, to whose soft seizure 
The cygnet’s down is harsh, and spirit of sense 60 
Hard as the palm of ploughman : this thou tell’st me, 

As true thou tell’st me, when I say I love her; 

But, saying thus, instead of oil and balm. 

Thou lay’st in every gash that love hath given me 
The knife that made it. 

Pan. I speak no more than truth. 

Tro. Thou dost not speak so much. 

Pan. Faith, I’ll not meddle in’t. Let her be as 
she is : if she be fair, ’tis the better for her; an she 
be not, she has the mends in her own hands. 70 

Tro. Good Pandarus, how now, Pandarus ! 

Pan. I have had my labour for my travail; ill- 
thought on of her, and ill-thought on of you: gone 
between and between, but small thanks for my 
labour. 

Tro. What, art thou angry, Pandarus? what, 
with me ? 

Pan. Because she’s kin to me, therefore she’s not 
so fair as Helen: an she were not kin to me, she 
would be as fair on Friday as Helen is on Sunday, so 
But what care I ? I care not an she were a black-a- 
moor; ’tis all one to me. 


Scene I] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


5 


Tro. Say I she is not fair ? 

Pan. I do not care whether you do or no. She’s 
a fool to stay behind her father; let her to the 
Greeks; and so I’ll tell her the next time I see 
her: for my part. I’ll meddle nor make no more i’ 
the matter. 

Tro. Pandarus, — 

Pan. Not I. 90 

Tro. Sweet Pandarus, — 

Pan. Pray you, speak no more to me : I will leave 
all as I found it, and there an end. \_Exit. An alarum. 
Tro. Peace, you ungracious clamours! peace, 
rude sounds! 

Fools on both sides! Helen must needs be fair, 

When with your blood you daily paint her thus. 

I cannot fight upon this argument; 

It is too starved a subject for my sword. 

But Pandarus — O gods, how do you plague me ! 

I cannot come to Cressid but by Pandar; 100 

And he’s as tetchy to be woo’d to woo 
As she is stubborn-chaste against all suit. 

Tell me, Apollo, for thy Daphne’s love, 

What Cressid is, what Pandar, and what we. 

Her bed is India; there she lies, a pearl: 

Between our Ilium and where she resides, 

Let it be call’d the wild and wandering flood. 

Ourself the merchant, and this sailing Pandar 
Our doubtful hope, our convoy and our bark. 

Alarum. Enter .Eneas 

/Ene. How now, Prince Troilus! wherefore not 
afield? 110 


6 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act I 

Tro. Because not there: this woman’s answer 
sorts, 

For womanish it is to be from thence. 

What news, iEneas, from the field to-day ? 

Mne. That Paris is returned home, and hurt. 

Tro. By whom, iEneas ? 

JEne. Troilus, by Menelaus. 

Tro. Let Paris bleed: ’tis but a scar to scorn ; 
Paris is gored with Menelaus’ horn. \_Alarum. 

AEne. Hark, what good sport is out of town 
to-day! 

Tro. Better at home, if ‘would I might’ were 
‘may.’ 

But to the sport abroad : are you bound thither ? 120 

JEne. In all swift haste. 

Tro. Come, go we then together. 

[ Exeunt. 

Scene II — The same. A street 
Enter Cressida and Alexander her man 

Cres. Who were those went by ? 

Alex. Queen Hecuba and Helen. 

Cres. And whither go they ? 

Alex. Up to the eastern tower, 

Whose height commands as subject all the vale, 

To see the battle. Hector, whose patience 
Is as a virtue fix’d, to-day was moved: 

He chid Andromache and struck his armourer; 

And, like as there were husbandry in war. 

Before the sun rose he was harness’d light, 

And to the field goes he; where every flower 

Did, as a prophet, weep what it foresaw 10 

In Hector’s wrath. 


Scene II] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


7 


Cres. What was his cause of anger ? 

Alex. The noise goes, this : there is among the 
Greeks 

A lord of Trojan blood, nephew to Hector; 

They call him Ajax. 

Cres. Good; and what of him ? 

Alex. They say he is a very man per se. 

And stands alone. 

Cres. So do all men, unless they are drunk, sick, 
or have no legs. 

Alex. This man, lady, hath robbed many beasts 
of their particular additions; he is as valiant as 20 
the lion, churlish as the bear, slow as the ele¬ 
phant : a man into whom nature hath so crowded 
humours that his valour is crushed into folly, his 
folly sauced with discretion: there is no man 
hath a virtue that he hath not a glimpse of, nor 
any man an attaint but he carries some stain 
of it: he is melancholy without cause and merry 
against the hair: he hath the joints of every 
thing; but every thing so out of joint that he is 
a gouty Briareus, many hands and no use, or pur- 30 
blind Argus, all eyes and no sight. 

Cres. But how should this man, that makes me 
smile, make Hector angry ? 

Alex. They say he yesterday coped Hector in the 
battle and struck him down, the disdain and 
shame whereof hath ever since kept Hector fast¬ 
ing and waking. 

Enter Pandarus 

Cres. Who comes here ? 

Alex. Madam, your uncle Pandarus. 


8 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


[Act I 


Cres. Hector’s a gallant man. 

Alex. As may be in the world, lady. 

Pan. What’s that ? what’s that ? 

Cres. Good morrow, uncle Pandarus. 

Pan. Good morrow, cousin Cressid: what do 
you talk of? Good morrow, Alexander. How 
do you, cousin ? When were you at Ilium ? 

Cres. This morning, uncle. 

Pan. What were you talking of when I came? 
Was Hector armed and gone ere you came to 
Ilium ? Helen was not up, was she ? 

Cres. Hector was gone ; but Helen was not up. 

Pan. E’en so : Hector was stirring early. 

Cres. That were we talking of, and of his anger. 

Pan. Was he angry? 

Cres. So he says here. 

Pan. True, he was so; I know the cause too; 
he’ll lay about him to-day, I can tell them that; 
and there’s Troilus will not come far behind him; 
let them take heed of Troilus, I can tell them 
that too. 

Cres. What, is he angry too ? 

Pan. Who, Troilus? Troilus is the better man 
of the two. 

Cres. O Jupiter ; there’s no comparison. 

Pan. What, not between Troilus and Hector? 
Do you know a man if you see him ? 

Cres. Ay, if I ever saw him before and knew 
him. 

Pan. Well, I say Troilus is Troilus. 

Cres. Then you say as I say; for, I am sure, he 
is not Hector. 


40 

50 

60 

70 


Scene II] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


9 


Pan. No, nor Hector is not Troilus in some 
degrees. 

Cres. ’Tis just to each of them; he is him¬ 
self. 

Pan. Himself! Alas, poor Troilus! I would 
he were. 

Cres. So he is. 

Pan. Condition, I had gone barefoot to India. 

Cres. He is not Hector. so 

Pan. Himself! no, he’s not himself: would a’ 
were himself! Well, the gods are above; time 
must friend or end: well, Troilus, well, I would 
my heart were in her body! No, Hector is not 
a better man than Troilus. 

Cres. Excuse me. 

Pan. He is elder. 

Cres. Pardon me, pardon me. 

Pan. Th’ other’s not come to ’t; you shall tell 
me another tale, when th’ other’s come to ’t. 90 
Hector shall not have his wit this year. 

Cres. He shall not need it, if he have his own. 

Pan. Nor his qualities. 

Cres. No matter. 

Pan. Nor his beauty. 

Cres. ’Twould not become him; his own’s 
better. 

Pan. You have no judgement, niece: Helen 
herself swore th’ other day, that Troilus, for a 
brown favour — for so ’tis, I must confess, — not 100 
brown neither, — 

Cres. No, but brown. 

Pan. Faith, to say truth, brown and not 
brown. 


10 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


[Act I 


Cres. To say the truth, true and not true. 

Pan. She praised his complexion above Paris. 

Cres. Why, Paris hath colour enough. 

Pan. So he has. 

Cres. Then Troilus should have too much: if 
she praised him above, his complexion is higher no 
than his; he having colour enough, and the other 
higher, is too flaming a praise for a good complexion. 

I had as lief Helen’s golden tongue had commended 
Troilus for a copper nose. 

Pan. I swear to you, I think Helen loves him 
better than Paris. 

Cres. Then she’s a merry Greek indeed. 

Pan. Nay, I am sure she does. She came to him 
th’ other day into the compassed window, — and, 
you know, he has not past three or four hairs on 120 
his chin, — 

Cres. Indeed, a tapster’s arithmetic may soon 
bring his particulars therein to a total. 

Pan. Why, he is very young: and yet will he, 
within three pound, lift as much as his brother 
Hector. 

Cres. Is he so young a man and so old a 
lifter ? 

Pan. But, to prove to you that Helen loves him : 
she came and puts me her white hand to his cloven 130 
chin, — 

Cres. Juno have mercy ! how came it cloven? 

Pan. Why, you know, ’tis dimpled : I think his 
smiling becomes him better than any man in all 
Phrygia. 

Cres. O, he smiles valiantly. 


Scene II] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


11 


Pan. Does he not ? 

Cres. O yes, an ’twere a cloud in autumn. 

Pan. Why, go to, then : but to prove to you that 
Helen loves Troilus, — 140 

Cres. Troilus will stand to the proof, if you’ll 
prove it so. 

Pan. Troilus ! why, he esteems her no more than 
I esteem an addle egg. 

Cres. If you love an addle egg as well as you 
love an idle head, you would eat chickens i’ the 
shell. 

Pan. I cannot choose but laugh, to think how she 
tickled his chin; indeed, she has a marvellous white 
hand, I must needs confess, — 150 

Cres. Without the rack. 

Pan. And she takes upon her to spy a white hair 
on his chin. 

Cres. Alas, poor chin ! many a wart is richer. 

Pan. But there was such laughing! Queen 
Hecuba laughed, that her eyes ran o’er. 

Cres. With mill-stones. 

Pan. And Cassandra laughed. 

Cres. But there was more temperate fire under 
the pot of her eyes : did her eyes run o’er too ? 160 

Pan. And Hector laughed. 

Cres. At what was all this laughing ? 

Pan. Marry, at the white hair that Helen spied 
on Troilus’ chin. 

Cres. An’t had been a green hair, I should have 
laughed too. 

Pan. They laughed not so much at the hair as at 
his pretty answer. 


12 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


[Act I 


Cres. What was his answer? 

Pan. Quoth she, ‘Here’s but two and fifty hairs 170 
on your chin, and one of them is white.’ 

Cres. This is her question. 

Pan. That’s true; make no question of that. 
‘Two and fifty hairs,’ quoth he, ‘and one white: 
that white hair is my father, and all the rest are his 
sons.’ ‘Jupiter!’ quoth she, ‘which of these 
hairs is Paris my husband?’ ‘The forked one,’ 
quoth he, ‘pluck ’t out, and give it him.’ But 
there was such laughing! and Helen so blushed, 
and Paris so chafed, and all the rest so laughed, iso 
that it passed. 

Cres. So let it now; for it has been a great while 
going by. 

Pan. Well, cousin, I told you a thing yesterday; 
think on’t. 

Cres. So I do. 

Pan. I’ll be sworn ’tis true; he will weep you, 
an ’twere a man born in April. 

Cres. And I’ll spring up in his tears, an ’twere a 
nettle against May. [A retreat sounded. 190 

Pan. Hark! they are coming from the field: 
shall we stand up here and see them as they pass 
toward Ilium ? good niece, do, sweet niece 
Cressida. 

Cres. At your pleasure. 

Pan. Here, here, here’s an excellent place ; here 
we may see most bravely: I’ll tell you them 
all by their names as they pass by; but mark 
Troilus above the rest. 


Scene II] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


13 


^Eneas passes 

Cres. Speak not so loud. 200 

Pan. That’s iEneas : is not that a brave man ? 
he’s one of the flowers of Troy, I can tell you: 
but mark Troilus; you shall see anon. 

Cres. Who’s that ? 

Antenor passes 

Pan. That’s Antenor : he has a shrewd wit, I can 
tell you; and he’s a man good enough: he’s 
one o’ the soundest judgements in Troy, whoso¬ 
ever, and a proper man of person. When comes 
Troilus ? I’ll show you Troilus anon: if he see 
me, you shall see him nod at me. 210 

Cres. Will he give you the nod ? 

Pan. You shall see. 

Cres. If he do, the rich shall have more. 

Hector passes 

Pan. That’s Hector, that, that, look you, that; 
there’s a fellow! Go thy way, Hector! There’s 
a brave man, niece. O brave Hector! Look 
how he looks! there’s a countenance! is’t not a 
brave man ? 

Cres. O, a brave man ! 

Pan. Is a’ not? it does a man’s heart good.220 
Look you what hacks are on his helmet! look 
you yonder, do you see ? look you there: there’s 
no jesting; there’s laying on, take ’t off who 
will, as they say : there be hacks ! 

Cres. Be those with swords ? 

Pan. Swords ! any thing, he cares not; an the 


14 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


[Act I 


devil come to him, it’s all one : by God’s lid, it does 
one’s heart good. Yonder comes Paris, yonder 
comes Paris. 

Paris passes 

Look ye yonder, niece; is ’t not a gallant man 230 
too, is ’t not? Why, this is brave now. Who 
said he came hurt home to-day ? he’s not hurt: 
why, this will do Helen’s heart good now, ha! 
Would I could see Troilus now! you shall see 
Troilus anon. 

Cres. Who’s that ? 

Helenus passes 

Pan. That’s Helenus: I marvel where Troilus 
is. That’s Helenus. I think he went not forth 
to-day. That’s Helenus. 

Cres. Can Helenus fight, uncle ? 240 

Pan. Helenus! no; yes, he’ll fight indifferent 
well. I marvel where Troilus is. Hark ! do you not 
hear the people cry ‘Troilus’? Helenus is a 
priest. 

Cres. What sneaking fellow comes yonder ? 

Troilus passes 

Pan. Where ? yonder ? that’s Deiphobus. ’Tis 
Troilus! there’s a man, niece! Hem! Brave 
Troilus ! the prince of chivalry ! 

Cres. Peace, for shame, peace ! 

Pan. Mark him ; note him. O brave Troilus ! 250 
Look well upon him, niece; look you how his 
sword is bloodied, and his helm more hacked 
than Hector’s; and how he looks, and how he 


Scene II] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


15 


goes! O admirable youth! he never saw three- 
and-twenty. Go thy way, Troilus, go thy way! 
Had I a sister were a grace, or a daughter a god¬ 
dess, he should take his choice. O admirable 
man! Paris ? Paris is dirt to him; and, I war¬ 
rant, Helen, to change, would give an eye to boot. 

Common Soldiers pass 

Cres. Here come more. 260 

Pan. Asses, fools, dolts! chaff and bran, chaff 
and bran! porridge after meat! I could live and 
die i’ the eyes of Troilus. Ne’er look, ne’er 
look; the eagles are gone : crows and daws, crows 
and daws! I had rather be such a man as Troilus 
than Agamemnon and all Greece. 

Cres. There is among the Greeks Achilles, 
a better man than Troilus. 

Pan. Achilles! a drayman, a porter, a very 
camel. 270 

Cres. Well, well. 

Pan. Well, well! Why, have you any discretion ? 
have you any eyes? do you know what a man 
is? Is not birth, beauty, good shape, discourse, 
manhood, learning, gentleness, virtue, youth, 
liberality, and such like, the spice and salt that 
season a man ? 

Cres. Ay, a minced man : and then to be baked 
with no date in the pie, for then the man’s date 

is OUt. 280 

Pan. You are such a woman ! pne knows not at 
what ward you lie. 

Cres. Upon my back, to defend my belly; upon 


16 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


[Act I 


my wit, to defend my wiles; upon my se¬ 
crecy, to defend mine honesty; my mask, to 
defend my beauty; and you, to defend all 
these: and at all these wards I lie, at a thousand 
watches. 

Pan. Say one of your watches. 

Cres. Nay, I’ll watch you for that; and that’s290 
one of the chiefest of them too : if I cannot ward 
what I would not have hit, I can watch you for 
telling how I took the blow; unless it swell past 
hiding, and then it’s past watching. 

Pan. You are such another ! 

Enter Troilus’ s Boy 

Boy. Sir, my lord would instantly speak with 
you. 

Pan. Where ? 

Boy. At your own house ; there he unarms him. 

Pan. Good boy, tell him I come. [Exit Boy.~\ 1 300 
doubt he be hurt. Fare ye well, good niece. 

Cres. Adieu, uncle. 

Pan. I will be with you, niece, by and by. 

Cres. To bring, uncle ? 

Pan. Ay, a token from Troilus. 

Cres. By the same token, you are a bawd. 

[Exeunt Pandarus. 

Words, vows, gifts, tears, and love’s full sacrifice, 

He offers in another’s enterprise : 

But more in Troilus thousand fold I see 

Than in the glass of Pandar’s praise may be; 310 

Yet hold I off. Women are angels, wooing: 

Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing: 


Scene III] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


17 


That she beloved knows nought that knows not this : 
Men prize the thing ungain’d more than it is: 

That she was never yet that ever knew 
Love got so sweet as when desire did sue: 

Therefore this maxim out of love I teach: 
Achievement is command ; ungain’d, beseech. 

Then though my heart’s content firm love doth bear, 
Nothing of that shall from mine eyes appear. 

[Exeunt. 

Scene III — The Grecian camp. Before Agamemnon’s tent 

Sennet. Enter Agamemnon, Nestor, Ulysses, Menelaus, 
with others 

Agam. Princes, 

What grief hath set the jaundice on your cheeks? 

The ample proposition that hope makes 

In all designs begun on earth below 

Fails in the promised largeness : checks and disasters 

Grow in the veins of actions highest rear’d, 

As knots, by the conflux of meeting sap, 

Infect the sound pine and divert his grain 
Tortive and errant from his course of growth. 

Nor, princes, is it matter new to us 
That we come short of our suppose so far 
That after seven years’ siege yet Troy walls stand; 
Sith every action that hath gone before, 

Whereof we have record, trial did draw 

Bias and thwart, not answering the aim 

And that unbodied figure of the thought 

That gave’t surmised shape. Why then, you princes, 

Do you with cheeks abash’d behold our works, 

And call them shames ? which are indeed nought else 
But the protractive trials of great Jove 


18 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


[Act I 


To find persistive constancy in men : 

The fineness of which metal is not found 
In fortune’s love; for then the bold and coward. 

The wise and fool, the artist and unread, 

The hard and soft, seem all affined and kin : 

But in the wind and tempest of her frown, 

Distinction with a broad and powerful fan, 

Puffing at all, winnows the light away. 

And what hath mass or matter, by itself 
Lies rich in virtue and unmingled. 30 

Nest. With due observance of thy godlike seat, 
Great Agamemnon, Nestor shall apply 
Thy latest words. In the reproof of chance 
Lies the true proof of men: the sea being smooth, 
How many shallow bauble boats dare sail 
Upon her patient breast, making their way 
With those of nobler bulk! 

But let the ruffian Boreas once enrage 
The gentle Thetis, and anon behold 
The strong-ribb’d bark through liquid mountains cut, 40 
Bounding between the two moist elements. 

Like Perseus’ horse: where’s then the saucy boat, 
Whose weak untimber’d sides but even now 
Co-rivail’d greatness ? either to harbour fled. 

Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so 
Doth valour’s show and valour’s worth divide 
In storms of fortune: for in her ray and brightness 
The herd hath more annoyance by the breese 
Than by the tiger; but when the splitting wind 
Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks, 

And flies fled under shade, why then the thing of 
courage 


50 


Scene III] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 19 

As roused with rage with rage doth sympathize, 
And with an accent tuned in selfsame key 
Retorts to chiding fortune. 

Ulyss. Agamemnon, 

Thou great commander, nerve and bone of Greece, 
Heart of our numbers, soul and only spirit. 

In whom the tempers and the minds of all 
Should be shut up, hear what Ulysses speaks. 
Besides the applause and approbation 
The which, [ To Agamemnon] most mighty for thy 
place and sway, 

\_To Nestor] And thou most reverend for thy 
stretch’d-out life, 

I give to both your speeches, which were such 
As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece 
Should hold up high in brass, and such again 
As venerable Nestor, hatch’d in silver. 

Should with a bond of air, strong as the axletree 
On which heaven rides, knit all the Greekish ears 
To his experienced tongue, yet let it please both. 
Thou great, and wise, to hear Ulysses speak. 

Agam. Speak, Prince of Ithaca; and be’t of less 
expect 

That matter needless, of importless burthen, 

Divide thy lips, than we are confident, 

When rank Thersites opes his mastic jaws. 

We shall hear music, wit and oracle. 

Ulyss. Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down, 
And the great Hector’s sword had lack’d a master, 
But for these instances. 

The specialty of rule hath been neglected : 

And, look, how many Grecian tents do stand 


20 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


[Act I 


Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions. so 
When that the general is not like the hive 
To whom the foragers shall all repair. 

What honey is expected ? Degree being vizarded, 

The unworthiest shows as fairly in the mask. 

The heavens themselves, the planets and this centre. 
Observe degree, priority and place, 

Insisture, course, proportion, season, form. 

Office and custom, in all line of order: 

And therefore is the glorious planet Sol 
In noble eminence enthroned and sphered 90 

Amidst the other; whose medicinable eye 
Corrects the ill aspects of planets evil, 

And posts like the commandment of a king, 

Sans check to good and bad: but when the planets 
In evil mixture to disorder wander, 

What plagues and what portents, what mutiny. 

What raging of the sea, shaking of earth, 

Commotion in the winds, frights, changes, horrors. 
Divert and crack, rend and deracinate 
The unity and married calm of states 100 

Quite from their fixture ! O, when degree is shaked. 
Which is the ladder to all high designs, 

The enterprise is sick! How could communities, 
Degrees in schools and brotherhoods in cities. 

Peaceful commerce from dividable shores, 

The primogenitive and due of birth, 

Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels. 

But by degree, stand in authentic place ? 

Take but degree away, untune that string, 

And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets no 
In mere oppugnancy : the bounded waters 


Scene III] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


21 


Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores, 

And make a sop of all this solid globe: 

Strength should be lord of imbecility, 

And the rude son should strike his father dead : 

Force should be right; or rather, right and wrong, 
Between whose endless jar justice resides, 

Should lose their names, and so should justice too. 
Then every thing includes itself in power. 

Power into will, will into appetite; 120 

And appetite, an universal wolf, 

So doubly seconded with will and power. 

Must make perforce an universal prey, 

And last eat up himself. Great Agamemnon, 

This chaos, when degree is suffocate. 

Follows the choking. 

And this neglection of degree it is 

That by a pace goes backward, with a purpose 

It hath to climb. The general’s disdain’d 

By him one step below; he by the next; 130 

That next by him beneath: so every step, 

Exampled by the first pace that is sick 
Of his superior, grows to an envious fever 
Of pale and bloodless emulation: 

And ’tis this fever that keeps Troy on foot, 

Not her own sinews. To end a tale of length, 

Troy in our weakness stands, not in her strength. 

Nest. Most wisely hath Ulysses here discover’d 
The fever whereof all our power is sick. 

Agam. The nature of the sickness found, Ulysses, 140 
What is the remedy ? 

Ulyss. The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns 
The sinew and the forehand of our host, 


22 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act I 


Having his ear full of his airy fame, 

Grows dainty of his worth, and in his tent 
Lies mocking our designs : with him, Patroclus, 

Upon a lazy bed, the livelong day 
Breaks scurril jests; 

And with ridiculous and awkward action. 

Which, slanderer, he imitation calls, 150 

He pageants us. Sometime, great Agamemnon, 

Thy topless deputation he puts on; 

And, like a strutting player, whose conceit 
Lies in his hamstring, and doth think it rich 
To hear the wooden dialogue and sound 
’Twixt his stretch’d footing and the scaffoldage. 

Such to-be-pitied and o’er-wrested seeming 
He acts thy greatness in : and when he speaks, 

’Tis like a chime a-mending; with terms unsquared, 
Which, from the tongue of roaring Typhon dropp’d, 160 
Would seem hyperboles. At this fusty stuff. 

The large Achilles, on his press’d bed lolling, 

From his deep chest laughs out a loud applause; 

Cries ‘Excellent! ’tis Agamemnon just. 

Now play me Nestor; hem, and stroke thy beard. 

As he being dress’d to some oration.’ 

That’s done; as near as the extremest ends 
Of parallels, as like as Vulcan and his wife: 

Yet god Achilles still cries ‘Excellent! 

’Tis Nestor right. Now play him me, Patroclus, 170 
Arming to answer in a night alarm.’ 

And then, forsooth, the faint defects of age 
Must be the scene of mirth; to cough and spit. 

And, with a palsy fumbling on his gorget, 

Shake in and out the rivet: and at this sport 


Scene III] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


Sir Valour dies; cries ‘O, enough, Patroclus; 

Or give me ribs of steel! I shall split all 
In pleasure of my spleen.’ And in this fashion. 

All our abilities, gifts, natures, shapes, 

Severals and generals of grace exact, iso 

Achievements, plots, orders, preventions, 

Excitements to the field or speech for truce, 

Success or loss, what is or is not, serves 
As stuff for these two to make paradoxes. 

Nest. And in the imitation of these twain, 

Who, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns 
With an imperial voice, many are infect. 

Ajax is grown self-will’d, and bears his head 
In such a rein, in full as proud a place 
As broad Achilles; keeps his tent like him; 190 

Makes factious feasts; rails on our state of war 
Bold as an oracle, and sets Thersites, 

A slave whose gall coins slanders like a mint, 

To match us in comparisons with dirt, 

To weaken and discredit our exposure, 

How rank soever rounded in with danger. 

Ulyss. They tax our policy and call it cowardice, 
Count wisdom as no member of the war, 

Forestall prescience, and esteem no act 
But that of hand : the still and mental parts 200 

That do contrive how many hands shall strike 
When fitness calls them on, and know by measure 
Of their observant toil the enemies’ weight, — 

Why, this hath not a finger’s dignity: 

They call this bed-work, mappery, closet-war; 

So that the ram that batters down the wall, 

For the great swing and rudeness of his poise* 


24 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act I 


They place before his hand that made the engine. 

Or those that with the fineness of their souls 
By reason guide his execution. 210 

Nest. Let this be granted, and Achilles’ horse 
Makes many Thetis’ sons. \_Tucket. 

Agam. What trumpet ? look, Menelaus. 

Men. From Troy. 

Enter vEneas 

Again. What would you ’fore our tent ? 

JEne. Is this great Agamemnon’s tent, I pray you ? 
Agam. Even this. 

jEne. May one that is a herald and a prince 
Do a fair message to his kingly ears ? 

Agam. With surety stronger than Achilles’ arm 220 
’Fore all the Greekish heads, which with one voice 
Call Agamemnon head and general. 

AEne. Fair leave and large security. How may 
A stranger to those most imperial looks 
Know them from eyes of other mortals ? 

Agam. How! 

AEne. Ay: 

I ask, that I might waken reverence. 

And bid the cheek be ready with a blush 
Modest as morning when she coldly eyes 
The youthful Phoebus : 230 

Which is that god in office, guiding men ? 

Which is the high and mighty Agamemnon ? 

Agam. This Trojan scorns us; or the men of Troy 
Are ceremonious courtiers. 

AEne. Courtiers as free, as debonair, unarm’d, 

As bending angels; that’s their fame in peace : 


Scene III] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


25 


But when they would seem soldiers, they have galls, 
Good arms, strong joints, true swords; and, Jove’s 
accord, 

Nothing so full of heart. But peace, iEneas, 

Peace, Trojan; lay thy finger on thy lips ! 240 

The worthiness of praise distains his worth, 

If that the praised himself bring the praise forth: 

But what the repining enemy commends, 

That breath fame blows; that praise, sole pure, 
transcends. 

Agam. Sir, you of Troy, call you yourself iEneas ? 
Mne. Ay, Greek, that is my name. 

Agam. What’s your affair, I pray you ? 
fflne. Sir, pardon; ’tis for Agamemnon’s ears. 
Agam. He hears nought privately that comes 
from Troy. 

JEne. Nor I from Troy come not to whisper him : 250 
I bring a trumpet to awake his ear, 

To set his sense on the attentive bent, 

And then to speak. 

Agam. Speak frankly as the wind; 

It is not Agamemnon’s sleeping hour: 

That thou shalt know, Trojan, he is awake. 

He tells thee so himself. 

1Ene. Trumpet, blow loud. 

Send thy brass voice through all these lazy tents; 

And every Greek of mettle, let him know, 

What Troy means fairly shall be spoke aloud. 

[Trumpet sounds. 

We have, great Agamemnon, here in Troy 260 

A prince call’d Hector — Priam is his father — 

Who in this dull and long-continued truce 


26 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


[Act I 


Is rusty grown: he bade me take a trumpet, 

And to this purpose speak. Kings, princes, lords! 

If there be one among the fair’st of Greece, 

That holds his honour higher than his ease, 

That seeks his praise more than he fears his peril. 

That knows his valour and knows not his fear, 

That loves his mistress more than in confession 
With truant vows to her own lips he loves, 270 

And dare avow her beauty and her worth 
In other arms than hers — to him this challenge. 
Hector, in view of Trojans and of Greeks, 

Shall make it good, or do his best to do it, 

He hath a lady, wiser, fairer, truer, 

Than ever Greek did compass in his arms; 

And will to-morrow with his trumpet call 
Midway between your tents and walls of Troy, 

To rouse a Grecian that is true in love: 

If any come, Hector shall honour him ; 280 

If none, he’ll say in Troy when he retires. 

The Grecian dames are sunburnt and not worth 
The splinter of a lance. Even so much. 

Agam. This shall be told our lovers, Lord iEneas ; 

If none of them have soul in such a kind, 

We left them all at home : but we are soldiers; 

And may that soldier a mere recreant prove. 

That means not, hath not, or is not in love! 

If then one is, or hath, or means to be, 

That one meets Hector; if none else, I am he. 290 
Nest. Tell him of Nestor, one that was a man 
When Hector’s grandsire suck’d : he is old now; 

But if there be not in our Grecian host 
One noble man that hath one spark of fire. 


Scene III] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


27 


To answer for his love, tell him from me 
I’ll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver, 

And in my vantbrace put this wither’d brawn, 

And meeting him will tell him that my lady 
Was fairer than his grandam, and as chaste 
As may be in the world: his youth in flood, 

I’ll prove this truth with my three drops of blood. 
JEne. Now heavens forbid such scarcity of youth ! 
Ulyss. Amen. 

Agam. Fair Lord TCneas, let me touch your hand; 
To our pavilion shall I lead you, sir. 

Achilles shall have word of this intent; 

So shall each lord of Greece, from tent to tent: 
Yourself shall feast with us before you go. 

And find the welcome of a noble foe. 

[Exeunt all but Ulysses and Nestor. 
Ulyss. Nestor! 

Nest. What says Ulysses ? 

Ulyss. I have a young conception in my brain; 
Be you my time to bring it to some shape. 

Nest. What is’t ? 

Ulyss. This ’tis: 

Blunt wedges rive hard knots: the seeded pride 
That hath to this maturity blown up 
In rank Achilles must or now be cropp’d, 

Or, shedding, breed a nursery of like evil, 

To overbulk us all. 

Nest. Well, and how ? 

Ulyss. This challenge that the gallant Hector 
sends, 

However it is spread in general name, 

Relates in purpose only to Achilles. 


28 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act I 

Nest. The purpose is perspicuous even as sub¬ 
stance, 

Whose grossness little characters sum up : 

And, in the publication, make no strain, 

But that Achilles, were his brain as barren 
As banks of Libya, — though, Apollo knows, 

’Tis dry enough — will, with great speed of judge¬ 
ment, 

Ay, with celerity, find Hector’s purpose 
Pointing on him. 

Ulyss. And wake him to the answer, think you ? 
Nest. Yes, ’tis most meet: who may you else op¬ 
pose, 

That can from Hector bring his honour off. 

If not Achilles ? Though’t be a sportful combat, 
Yet in this trial much opinion dwells; 

For here the Trojans taste our dear’st repute 
With their finest palate : and trust to me, Ulysses, 
Our imputation shall be oddly poised 
In this wild action ; for the success, 

Although particular, shall give a scantling 
Of good or bad unto the general; 

And in such indexes, although small pricks 
To their subsequent volumes, there is seen 
The baby figure of the giant mass 
Of things to come at large. It is supposed 
He that meets Hector issues from our choice : 

And choice, being mutual act of all our souls, 

Makes merit her election, and doth boil, 

As ’twere from forth us all, a man distill’d 
Out of our virtues; who miscarrying, 

What heart from hence receives the conquering part, 


Scene III] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 29 

To steel a strong opinion to themselves ? 

Which entertain’d, limbs are his instruments, 

In no less working than are swords and bows 
Directive by the limbs. 

XJlyss. Give pardon to my speech; 

Therefore ’tis meet Achilles meet not Hector. 

Let us, like merchants, show our foulest wares, 

And think, perchance, they’ll sell; if not, 360 

The lustre of the better yet to show, 

Shall show the better. Do not consent 
That ever Hector and Achilles meet; 

For both our honour and our shame in this 
Are dogg’d with two strange followers. 

Nest. I see them not with my old eyes : what are 
they ? 

XJlyss. What glory our Achilles shares from 
Hector, 

Were he not proud, we all should share with him : 

But he already is too insolent; 

And we were better parch in Afric sun 370 

Than in the pride and salt scorn of his eyes. 

Should he ’scape Hector fair : if he were foil’d 
Why then, we did our main opinion crush 
In taint of our best man. No, make a lottery; 

And by device let blockish Ajax draw 

The sort to fight with Hector : among ourselves 

Give him allowance for the better man; 

For that will physic the great Myrmidon 
Who broils in loud applause, and make him fall 
His crest that prouder than blue Iris bends. 380 

If the dull brainless Ajax come safe off, 

We’ll dress him up in voices : if he fail, 


30 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act II 


Yet go we under our opinion still 

That we have better men. But, hit or miss, 

Our project’s life this shape of sense assumes, 

Ajax employ’d plucks down Achilles’ plumes. 

Nest. Ulysses, 

Now I begin to relish thy advice; 

And I will give a taste of it forthwith 
To Agamemnon : go we to him straight. 390 

Two curs shall tame each other: pride alone 
Must tarre the mastiffs on, as ’twere their bone. 

__ [ Exeunt. 


ACT II 

Scene I — The Grecian Camp 
Enter Ajax and Thersites 
Ajax. Thersites! 

Ther. Agamemnon — how if he had boils — full, 
all over, generally ? 

Ajax. Thersites! 

Ther. And those boils did run ? — Say so, — did 
not the general run then? were not that a botchy 
core? 

Ajax. Dog! 

Ther. Then would come gome matter from him ; 

I see none now. 10 

Ajax. Thou bitch-wolf’s son, canst thou not hear ? 
Feel, then. [ Strikes him. 

Ther. The plague of Greece upon thee, thou 
mongrel beef-witted lord! 

Ajax. Speak then, thou vinewed’st leaven, speak : 

I will beat thee into handsomeness. 



Scene I] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


31 


Ther. I shall sooner rail thee into wit and holi¬ 
ness : but, I think, thy horse will sooner con an 
oration than thou learn a prayer without book. 
Thou canst strike, canst thou ? a red murrain o’ thy 20 
jade’s tricks! 

Ajax. Toadstool, learn me the proclamation. 

Ther. Dost thou think I have no sense, thou 
strikest me thus ? 

Ajax. The proclamation! 

Ther. Thou art proclaimed a fool, I think. 

Ajax. Do not, porpentine, do not; my fingers 
itch. 

Ther. I would thou didst itch from head to foot, 
and I had the scratching of thee; I would make 30 
thee the loathsomest scab in Greece. When thou 
art forth in the incursions, thou strikest as slow 
as another. 

Ajax. I say, the proclamation ! 

Ther. Thou grumblest and railest every hour on 
Achilles, and thou art as full of envy at his greatness 
as Cerberus is at Proserpina’s beauty, ay, that 
thou barkest at him. 

Ajax. Mistress Thersites! 

Ther. Thou shouldst strike him. 40 

Ajax. Cobloaf! 

Ther. He would pun thee into shivers with his 
fist, as a sailor breaks a biscuit. 

Ajax. [.Beating him ] You whoreson cur! 

Ther. Do, do. 

Ajax. Thou stool for a witch ! 

Ther. Ay, do, do; thou sodden-witted lord! 
thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows; 


32 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act II 


an assinego may tutor thee: thou scurvy-valiant 
ass! thou art here but to thrash Trojans; and 50 
thou art bought and sold among those of any wit, 
like a barbarian slave. If thou use to beat me, 

I will begin at thy heel and tell what thou art by 
inches, thou thing of no bowels, thou! 

Ajax. You dog! 

Ther. You scurvy lord ! 

Ajax. \_Beating him ] You cur! 

Ther. Mars his idiot! do, rudeness; do, camel, 
do, do. 


Enter Achilles and Patroclus 

Achil. Why, how now, Ajax! wherefore do ye 60 
thus ? How now, Thersites! what’s the matter, 
man? 

Ther. You see him there, do you ? 

Achil. Ay; what’s the matter ? 

Ther. Nay, look upon him. 

Achil. So I do : what’s the matter ? 

Ther. Nay, but regard him well. 

Achil. ‘Well!’ why, so I do. 

Ther. But yet you look not well upon him ; for, 
whosoever you take him to be, he is Ajax. 70 

Achil. I know that, fool. 

Ther. Ay, but that fool knows not himself. 

Ajax. Therefore I beat thee. 

Ther. Lo, lo, lo, lo, what modicums of wit he 
utters! his evasions have ears thus long. I have 
bobbed his brain more than he has beat my bones : 

I will buy nine sparrows for a penny, and his pia 
mater is not worth the ninth part of a sparrow. 


Scene I] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


33 


This lord, Achilles, Ajax, who wears his wit in 
his belly and his guts in his head, I’ll tell you what so 
I say of him. 

Achil. What ? 

Ther. I say, this Ajax — \_Ajax offers to strike him. 

Achil. Nay, good Ajax. 

Ther. Has not so much wit — 

Achil. Nay, I must hold you. 

Ther. As will stop the eye of Helen’s needle, for 
whom he comes to fight. 

Achil. Peace, fool! 

Ther. I would have peace and quietness, but 90 
the fool will not: he there: that he: look you 
there! 

Ajax. O thou damned cur! I shall — 

Achil. Will you set your wit to a fool’s ? 

Ther. No, I warrant you; for a fool’s will shame 
it. 

Pair. Good words, Thersites. 

Achil. What’s the quarrel ? 

Ajax. I bade the vile owl go learn me the tenour 
of the proclamation, and he rails upon me. 100 

Ther. I serve thee not. 

Ajax. Well, go to, go to. 

Ther. I serve here voluntary. 

Achil. Your last service was sufferance, ’twas 
not voluntary; no man is beaten voluntary: Ajax 
was here the voluntary, and you as under an im¬ 
press. 

Ther. E’en so ; a great deal of your wit too lies 
in your sinews, or else there be liars. Hector 
shall have a great catch, if he knock out either no 


34 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act II 


of your brains: a’ were as good crack a fusty 
nut with no kernel. 

Achil. What, with me too, Thersites ? 

Ther. There’s Ulysses and old Nestor, whose 
wit was mouldy ere your grandsires had nails on 
their toes, yoke you like draught-oxen, and make 
you plough up the wars. 

Achil. What ? what ? 

Ther. Yes, good sooth: to, Achilles! to, 
Ajax! to ! 120 

Ajax. I shall cut out your tongue. 

Ther. ’Tis no matter; I shall speak as much 
as thou afterwards. 

Patr. No more words, Thersites; peace! 

Ther. I will hold my peace when Achilles’ brooch 
bids me, shall I ? 

Achil. There’s for you, Patroclus. 

Ther. I will see you hanged, like clotpoles, ere I 
come any more to your tents : I will keep where 
there is wit stirring, and leave the faction of fools. 130 

\_Exit. 

Patr. A good riddance. 

Achil. Marry, this, sir, is proclaim’d through all 
our host: 

That Hector, by the fifth hour of the sun, 

Will with a trumpet ’twixt our tents and Troy 
To-morrow morning call some knight to arms 
That hath a stomach, and such a one that dare 
Maintain — I know not what: ’tis trash. Farewell. 

Ajax. Farewell. Who shall answer him ? 

Achil. I know not; ’tis put to lottery; other¬ 


wise 


140 


35 


Scene II] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 

He knew his man. 

Ajax. O, meaning you. I will go learn more of it. 

\_Exeunt. 

Scene II — Troy. A room in Priam’s palace 
Enter Priam, Hector, Troilus, Paris, and Helenus 

Pri. After so many hours, lives, speeches spent, 
Thus once again says Nestor from the Greeks: 

‘ Deliver Helen, and all damage else, 

As honour, loss of time, travail, expense, 

Wounds, friends, and what else dear that is con¬ 
sumed 

In hot digestion of this cormorant war, 

Shall be struck off.’ Hector, what say you to’t ? 

Hect. Though no man lesser fears the Greeks than I 
As far as toucheth my particular, 

Yet, dread Priam, 

There is no lady of more softer bowels, 

More spongy to suck in the sense of fear. 

More ready to cry out ‘ Who knows what follows ? ’ 
Than Hector is : the wound of peace is surety, 
Surety secure : but modest doubt is call’d 
The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches 
To the bottom of the worst. Let Helen go. 

Since the first sword was drawn about this question, 
Every tithe soul, ’mongst many thousand dismes, 
Hath been as dear as Helen; I mean, of ours : 

If we have lost so many tenths of ours, 

To guard a thing not ours, nor worth to us, 

Had it our name, the value of one ten, 

What merit’s in that reason which denies 
The yielding of her up ? 


36 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act II 


Tro. Fie, fie, my brother ! 

Weigh you the worth and honour of a king, 

So great as our dread father, in a scale 
Of common ounces ? will you with counters sum 
The past proportion of his infinite ? 

And buckle in a waist most fathomless 
With spans and inches so diminutive 
As fears and reasons ? fie, for godly shame ! 

Hel. No marvel, though you bite so sharp at 
reasons, 

You are so empty of them. Should not our father 
Bear the great sway of his affairs with reasons, 
Because your speech hath none that tells him so ? 
Tro. You are for dreams and slumbers, brother 
priest; 

You fur your gloves with reason. Here are your 
reasons: 

You know an enemy intends you harm; 

You know a sword employ’d is perilous. 

And reason flies the object of all harm : 

Who marvels then, when Helenus beholds 
A Grecian and his sword, if he do set 
The very wings of reason to his heels. 

And fly like chidden Mercury from Jove, 

Or like a star disorb’d? Nay, if we talk of reason, 
Let’s shut our gates, and sleep : manhood and honour 
Should have hare hearts, would they but fat their 
thoughts 

With this cramm’d reason : reason and respect 
Make livers pale and lustihood deject. 

Hect. Brother, she is not worth what she doth cost 
The holding. 


37 


Scene II] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 

Tro. What’s aught, but as ’tis valued ? 

Hect. But value dwells not in particular will; 

It holds his estimate and dignity 
As well wherein ’tis precious of itself 
As in the prizer: ’tis mad idolatry 
To make the service greater than the god; 

And the will dotes, that is attributive 
To what infectiously itself affects, 

Without some image of the affected merit. 

Tro. I take to-day a wife, and my election 
Is led on in the conduct of my will; 

My will enkindled by mine eyes and ears. 

Two traded pilots ’twixt the dangerous shores 
Of will and judgement: how may I avoid, 

Although my will distaste what it elected, 

The wife I chose ? there can be no evasion 
To blench from this, and to stand firm by honour. 

We turn not back the silks upon the merchant 
When we have soil’d them, nor the remainder viands 70 
We do not throw in unrespective sieve, 

Because we now are full. It was thought meet 
Paris should do some vengeance on the Greeks : 

Your breath of full consent bellied his sails; 

The seas and winds, old wranglers, took a truce. 

And did him service: he touch’d the ports desired; 
And for an old aunt whom the Greeks held captive 
He brought a Grecian queen, whose youth and 
freshness 

Wrinkles Apollo’s and makes stale the morning. 

Why keep we her ? the Grecians keep our aunt: so 

Is she worth keeping ? why, she is a pearl, 

Whose price hath launch’d above a thousand ships, 


38 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act II 


And turn’d crown’d kings to merchants. 

If you’ll avouch ’twas wisdom Paris went, 

As you must needs, for you all cried ‘Go, go,’ 

If you’ll confess he brought home noble prize, 

As you must needs, for you all clapp’d your hands, 
And cried ‘Inestimable!’ why do you now 
The issue of your proper wisdoms rate, 

And do a deed that Fortune never did, 90 

Beggar the estimation which you prized 
Richer than sea and land ? O, theft most base, 

That we have stol’n what we do fear to keep! 

But thieves unworthy of a thing so stol’n, 

That in their country did them that disgrace. 

We fear to warrant in our native place! 

Cas. [ Within ] Cry, Trojans, cry ! 

Pri. What noise ? what shriek is this P 

Tro. ’Tis our mad sister, I do know her voice. 

Cas. [ Within ] Cry, Trojans ! 

Hect. It is Cassandra. 100 

Enter Cassandra, raving , with her hair about her ears 
Cas. Cry, Trojans, cry! lend me ten thousand 
eyes, 

And I will fill them with prophetic tears. 

Hect. Peace, sister, peace ! 

Cas. Virgins and boys, mid age and wrinkled eld, 
Soft infancy, that nothing canst but cry, 

Add to my clamours ! let us pay betimes 
A moiety of that mass of moan to come. 

Cry, Trojans, cry ! practise your eyes with tears ! 

Troy must not be, nor goodly Ilion stand; 

Our firebrand brother, Paris, burns us all. no 


Scene II] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


39 


Cry, Trojan, cry ! a Helen and a woe : 

Cry, cry! Troy burns, or else let Helen go. {Exit. 
Hect. Now, youthful Troilus, do not these high 
strains 

Of divination in our sister work 

Some touches of remorse ? or is your blood 

So madly hot that no discourse of reason, 

Nor fear of bad success in a bad cause, 

Can qualify the same ? 

Tro. Why, brother Hector, 

We may not think the justness of each act 

Such and no other than event doth form it; 120 

Nor once deject the courage of our minds, 

Because Cassandra’s mad: her brain-sick raptures 
Cannot distaste the goodness of a quarrel 
Which hath our several honours all engaged 
To make it gracious. For my private part, 

I am no more touch’d than all Priam’s sons: 

And Jove forbid there should be done amongst us 
Such things as might offend the weakest spleen 
To fight for and maintain! 

Par. Else might the world convince of levity 130 
As well my undertakings as your counsels: 

But I attest the gods, your full consent 
Gave wings to my propension, and cut off 
All fears attending on so dire a project. 

For what, alas, can these my single arms ? 

What propugnation is in one man’s valour, 

To stand the push and enmity of those 
This quarrel would excite ? Yet, I protest, 

Were I alone to pass the difficulties, 

And had as ample power as I have will, 


140 


40 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act II 


Paris should ne’er retract what he hath done, 

Nor faint in the pursuit. 

Pri. Paris, you speak 

Like one besotted on your sweet delights : 

You have the honey still, but these the gall; 

So to be valiant is no praise at all. 

Par. Sir, I propose not merely to myself 
The pleasures such a beauty brings with it; 

But I would have the soil of her fair rape 
Wiped off in honourable keeping her. 

What treason were it to the ransack’d queen, 150 

Disgrace to your great worths, and shame to me, 

Now to deliver her possession up 
On terms of base compulsion! Can it be 
That so degenerate a strain as this 
Should once set footing in your generous bosoms ? 
There’s not the meanest spirit on our party, 

Without a heart to dare, or sword to draw, 

When Helen is defended, nor none so noble, 

Whose life were ill bestow’d, or death unfamed, 

Where Helen is the subject: then, I say, 

Well may we fight for her, whom, we know well, 

The world’s large spaces cannot parallel. 

Hect. Paris and Troilus, you have both said well; 
And on the cause and question now in hand 
Have glozed, but superficially; not much 
Unlike young men, whom Aristotle thought 
Unfit to hear moral philosophy. 

The reasons you allege do more conduce 
To the hot passion of distemper’d blood, 

Than to make up a free determination 
’Twixt right and wrong; for pleasure and revenge 


170 


Scene II] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


41 


Have ears more deaf than adders to the voice 

Of any true decision. Nature craves 

All dues be render’d to their owners : now, 

What nearer debt in all humanity 
Than wife is to the husband ? If this law 
Of nature be corrupted through affection. 

And that great minds, of partial indulgence 
To their benumbed wills, resist the same, 

There is a law in each well-order’d nation iso 

To curb those raging appetites that are 
Most disobedient and refractory. 

If Helen then be wife to Sparta’s king, 

As it is known she is, these moral laws 
Of nature and of nations speak aloud 
To have her back return’d : thus to persist 
In doing wrong extenuates not wrong, 

But makes it much more heavy. Hector’s opinion 
Is this in way of truth : yet, ne’ertheless, 

My spritely brethren, I propend to you 190 

In resolution to keep Helen still; 

For ’tis a cause that hath no mean dependance 
Upon our joint and several dignities. 

Tro. Why, there you touch’d the life of our 
design: 

Were it not glory that we more affected 
Than the performance of our heaving spleens, 

I would not wish a drop of Trojan blood 
Spent more in her defence. But, worthy Hector, 

She is a theme of honour and renown; 

A spur to valiant and magnanimous deeds, 200 

Whose present courage may beat down our foes. 

And fame in time to come canonize us: 


42 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act II 


For, I presume, brave Hector would not lose 
So rich advantage of a promised glory 
As smiles upon the forehead of this action 
For the wide world’s revenue. 

Hect. I am yours. 

You valiant offspring of great Priamus. 

I have a roisting challenge sent amongst 
The dull and factious nobles of the Greeks, 

Will strike amazement to their drowsy spirits : 210 

I was advertised their great general slept, 

Whilst emulation in the army crept: 

This, I presume, will wake him. [j Exeunt. 

Scene III — The Grecian camp. Before the tent of Achilles 
Enter Thersites, solus 

Ther. How now, Thersites! what, lost in the 
labyrinth of thy fury! Shall the elephant Ajax 
carry it thus ? he beats me, and I rail at him : O, 
worthy satisfaction ! would it were otherwise ; that 
I could beat him, whilst he railed at me. ’Sfoot, 

I’ll learn to conjure and raise devils, but I’ll see 
some issue of my spiteful execrations. Then there’s 
Achilles, a rare enginer. If Troy be not taken 
till these two undermine it, the walls will stand 
till they fall of themselves. O thou great thunder- 10 
darter of Olympus, forget that thou art Jove, the 
king of gods, and, Mercury, lose all the serpentine 
craft of thy caduceus, if ye take not that little 
little less than little wit from them that they have! 
which short-armed ignorance itself knows is so 
abundant scarce, it will not in circumvention 
deliver a fly from a spider, without drawing their 


Scene III] TROILUS AND CRRSSIDA 


43 


massy irons and cutting the web, After this, 
the vengeance on the whole camp! or, rather, 
the Neapolitan bone-ache! for that, methinks, 20 
is the curse dependant on those that war for a 
placket. I have said my prayers; and devil 
Envy say amen. What, ho! my Lord Achilles! 

Enter Patroclus 

Patr. Who’s there ? Thersites ! Good Thersites, 
come in and rail. 

Ther. If I could ha’ remembered a gilt counter¬ 
feit, thou wouldst not have slipped out of my 
contemplation : but it is no matter; thyself upon 
thyself! The common curse of mankind, folly and 
ignorance, be thine in great revenue! heaven bless 30 
thee from a tutor, and discipline come not near thee ! 
Let thy blood be thy direction till thy death! then 
if she that lays thee out says thou art a fair corse, I’ll 
be sworn and sworn upon’t she never shrouded any 
but lazars. Amen. Where’s Achilles ? 

Patr. What, art thou devout ? wast thou in 
prayer ? 

Ther. Ay; the heavens hear me ! 

Patr. Amen. 

Enter Achilles 

Achil. Who’s there ? 40 

Patr. Thersites, my lord. 

Achil. Where, where ? Art thou come ? why, my 
cheese, my digestion, why hast thou not served thy¬ 
self in to my table so many meals? Come, what’s 
Agamemnon ? 


44 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act II 


Ther. Thy commander, Achilles: then tell me, 
Patroclus, what’s Achilles ? 

Patr. Thy lord, Thersites : then tell me, I pray 
thee, what’s thyself ? 

Ther. Thy knower, Patroclus: then tell me, so 
Patroclus, what art thou ? 

Patr. Thou mayst tell that knowest. 

Achil. O, tell, tell. 

Ther. I’ll decline the whole question. Agamem¬ 
non commands Achilles; Achilles is my lord ; I am 
Patroclus’ knower, and Patroclus is a fool. 

Patr. You rascal! 

Ther. Peace, fool! I have not done. 

Achil. He is a privileged man. Proceed, Ther¬ 
sites. 60 

Ther. Agamemnon is a fool; Achilles is a fool; 
Thersites is a fool, and, as aforesaid, Patroclus 
is a fool. 

Achil. Derive this ; come. 

Ther. Agamemnon is a fool to offer to com¬ 
mand Achilles; Achilles is a fool to be commanded 
of Agamemnon; Thersites is a fool to serve such 
a fool; and Patroclus is a fool positive. 

Patr. Why am I a fool ? 

Ther. Make that demand of the prover. It suf- 70 
fices me thou art. Look you, who comes here ? 

Achil. Patroclus, I’ll speak with nobody. Come 
in with me, Thersites. [Exit. 

Ther. Here is such patchery, such juggling 
and such knavery! all the argument is a cuckold 
and a whore; a good quarrel to draw emulous 
factions and bleed to death upon. Now, the dry 


Scene III] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


45 


serpigo on the subject! and war and lechery 
confound all! [Exit. 


Enter Agamemnon, Ulysses, Nestor, Diomedes, 
and Ajax 

Agam. Where is Achilles ? so 

Pair. Within his tent; but ill-disposed, my lord. 

Agam. Let it be known to him that we are here. 

He shent our messengers; and we lay by 
Our appertainments, visiting of him : 

Let him be told so, lest perchance he think 
We dare not move the question of our place. 

Or know not what we are. 

Patr. I shall say so to him. [Exit. 

Ulyss. We saw him at the opening of his tent: 

He is not sick. 

Ajax. Yes, lion-sick, sick of proud heart: you 90 
may call it melancholy, if you will favour the 
man; but, by my head, ’tis pride: but why, 
why? let him show us the cause. A word, my 
lord. [Takes Agamemnon aside. 

Nest. What moves Ajax thus to bay at him ? 

Ulyss. Achilles hath inveigled his fool from 
him. 

Nest. Who, Thersites? 

Ulyss. He. 

Nest. Then will Ajax lack matter, if he haveioo 
lost his argument. 

Ulyss. No, you see, he is his argument that has 
his argument, Achilles. 

Nest. All the better; their fraction is more our 


46 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act II 


wish than their faction: but it was a strong com¬ 
posure a fool could disunite. 

Ulyss. The amity that wisdom knits not, folly 
may easily untie. 


Re-enter Patroclus 
Here comes Patroclus. 

Nest. No Achilles with him. no 

Ulyss. The elephant hath joints, but none for 
courtesy: his legs are legs for necessity, not for 
flexure. 

Patr. Achilles bids me say, he is much sorry, 

If anything more than your sport and pleasure 
Did move your greatness and this noble state 
To call upon him; he hopes it is no other 
But for your health and your digestion sake. 

An after-dinner’s breath. 

Agam. Hear you, Patroclus : 

We are too well acquainted with these answers : 120 

But his evasion, wing’d thus swift with scorn. 

Cannot outfly our apprehensions. 

Much attribute he hath, and much the reason 
Why we ascribe it to him : yet all his virtues. 

Not virtuously on his own part beheld. 

Do in our eyes begin to lose their gloss, 

Yea, like fair fruit in an unwholesome dish. 

Are like to rot untasted. Go and tell him, 

We come to speak with him; and you shall not sin, 

If you do say we think him over-proud 130 

And under-honest; in self-assumption greater 
Than in the note of judgement; and worthier than 
himself 


Scene III] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


47 


Here tend the savage strangeness he puts on. 
Disguise the holy strength of their command, 

And underwrite in an observing kind 
His humorous predominance; yea, watch 
His pettish lunes, his ebbs, his flows, as if 
The passage and whole carriage of this action 
Rode on his tide. Go tell him this, and add, 

That if he overhold his price so much, 

We’ll none of him, but let him, like an engine 
Not portable, lie under this report: 

‘ Bring action hither, this cannot go to war: 

A stirring dwarf we do allowance give 
Before a sleeping giant: ’ tell him so. 

Patr. I shall; and bring his answer presently. 

[Exit. 

Agam. In second voice we’ll not be satisfied; 
We come to speak with him. Ulysses, enter you. 

[Exit TJlysses. 

Ajax. What is he more than another ? 

Agam. No more than what he thinks he is. 

Ajax. Is he so much ? Do you not think he 
thinks himself a better man than I am ? 

Agam. No question. 

Ajax. Will you subscribe his thought and say 
he is ? 

Agam. No, noble Ajax; you are as strong, as 
valiant, as wise, no less noble, much more gentle 
and altogether more tractable. 

Ajax. Why should a man be proud ? How doth 
pride grow ? I know not what pride is. 

Agam. Your mind is the clearer, Ajax, and your 
virtues the fairer. He that is proud eats up him- 


48 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act II 


self: pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his 
own chronicle; and whatever praises itself but 
in the deed, devours the deed in the praise. 

Ajax. I do hate a proud man, as I hate the en¬ 
gendering of toads. 

Nest. \_Aside~} Yet he loves himself: is ’t not 
strange ? 

Re-enter Ulysses 

Ulyss. Achilles will not to the field to-morrow. 170 

Agam. What’s his excuse ? 

TJlyss. He doth rely on none, 

But carries on the stream of his dispose, 

Without observance or respect of any, 

In will peculiar and in self-admission. 

Agam. Why will he not, upon our fair request, 
Untent his person, and share the air with us ? 

Ulyss. Things small as nothing, for request’s 
sake only 

He makes important: possess’d he is with greatness. 

And speaks not to himself but with a pride 

That quarrels at self-breath : imagined worth iso 

Holds in his blood such swol’n and hot discourse 

That ’twixt his mental and his active parts 

Kingdom’d Achilles in commotion rages 

And batters down himself: what should I say ? 

He is so plaguy proud that the death-tokens of it 
Cry ‘No recovery.’ 

Agam. Let Ajax go to him. 

Dear lord, go you and greet him in his tent: 

’Tis said he holds you well, and will be led 
At your request a little from himself. 


Scene III] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


49 


Ulyss. O Agamemnon, let it not be so ! 

We’ll consecrate the steps that Ajax makes 
When they go from Achilles. Shall the proud lord 
That bastes his arrogance with his own seam, 

And never suffers matter of the world 
Enter his thoughts, save such as do revolve 
And ruminate himself, shall he be worshipp’d 
Of that we hold an idol more than he ? 

No, this thrice worthy and right valiant lord 
Must not so stale his palm, nobly acquired. 

Nor, by my will, assubjugate his merit. 

As amply titled as Achilles is. 

By going to Achilles : 

That were to enlard his fat-already pride, 

And add more coals to Cancer when he burns 
With entertaining great Hyperion. 

This lord go to him ! Jupiter forbid, 

And say in thunder ‘Achilles go to him. ’ 

Nest. \_Aside~\ O, this is well; he rubs the vein 
of him. 

Dio. \_Aside~] And how his silence drinks up 
this applause! 

Ajax. If I go to him, with my armed fist 
I’ll pash him o’er the face. 

Agam. O, no, you shall not go. 

Ajax. An a’ be proud with me, I’ll pheeze his 
pride: 

Let me go to him. 

Ulyss. Not for the worth that hangs upon our 
quarrel. 

Ajax. A paltry, insolent fellow ! 

Nest. [_Aside~\ How he describes himself! 


190 

200 

210 


220 


50 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act II 


Ajax. Can he not be sociable ? 

TJlyss. \_Aside~\ The raven chides blackness. 

Ajax. I’ll let his humours blood. 

Agam. {Aside} He will be the physician that 
should be the patient. 

Ajax. An all men were o’ my mind, — 

JJlyss. {Aside} Wit would be out of fashion. 

Ajax. A’ should not bear it so, a’ should eat 
swords first: shall pride carry it ? 

Nest. {Aside} An ’twould, you’d carry half. 230 
TJlyss. {Aside} A’ would have ten shares. 

Ajax. I will knead him, I’ll make him supple. 

Nest. {Aside} He’s not yet through warm: 
force him with praises: pour in, pour in; his ambi¬ 
tion is dry. 

TJlyss. {To Agamemnon} My lord, you feed 
too much on this dislike. 

Nest. Our noble general, do not do so. 

Dio. You must prepare to fight without Achilles. 
TJlyss. Why, ’tis this naming of him does him 
harm. 

Here is a man — but ’tis before his face; 240 

I will be silent. 

Nest. Wherefore should you so ? 

He is not emulous, as Achilles is. 

TJlyss. Know the whole world, he is as valiant. 
Ajax. A whoreson dog, that shall palter thus with 
us ! Would he were a Trojan ! 

Nest. What a vice were it in Ajax now — 

TJlyss. If he were proud, — 

Dio. Or covetous of praise, — 

TJlyss. Ay, or surly borne, — 


Scene III] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


51 


Dio. Or strange, or self-affected ! 250 

TJlyss. Thank the heavens, lord, thou art of sweet 
composure; 

Praise him that got thee, she that gave thee suck: 
Famed be thy tutor, and thy parts of nature 
Thrice-famed, beyond all erudition : 

But he that disciplined thine arms to fight, 

Let Mars divide eternity in twain. 

And give him half : and, for thy vigour, 

Bull-bearing Milo his addition yield 
To sinewy Ajax. I will not praise thy wisdom, 

Which, like a bourn, a pale, a shore, confines 260 

Thy spacious and dilated parts : here’s Nestor, 
Instructed by the antiquary times, 

He must, he is, he cannot but be wise; 

But pardon, father Nestor, were your days 
As green as Ajax’, and your brain so temper’d, 

You should not have the eminence of him, 

But be as Ajax. 

Ajax. Shall I call you father ? 

Nest. Ay, my good son. 

Dio. Be ruled by him, Lord Ajax. 

Ulyss. There is no tarrying here; the hart Achilles 
Keeps thicket. Please it our great general 270 

To call together all his state of war: 

Fresh kings are come to Troy : to-morrow 
We must with all our main of power stand fast: 

And here’s a lord, come knights from east to west, 

And cull their flower, Ajax shall cope the best. 

Agam. Go we to council. Let Achilles sleep : 

Light boats sail swift, though greater hulks draw 
deep. _ [ Exeunt . 



52 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act III 


ACT III 

Scene I — Troy. A room in Priam’s palace 
Enter Pandarus and a Servant 
Pan. Friend, you, pray you, a word : do you not 
follow the young Lord Paris ? 

Serv. Ay, sir, when he goes before me. 

Pan. You depend upon him, I mean ? 

Serv. Sir, I do depend upon the Lord. 

Pan. You depend upon a noble gentleman; I 
must needs praise him. 

Serv. The Lord be praised ! 

Pan. You know me, do you not ? 

Serv. Faith, sir, superficially. 

Pan. Friend, know me better; I am the Lord 
Pandarus. 

Serv. I hope I shall know your honour better. 
Pan. I do desire it. 

Serv. You are in the state of grace. 

Pan. Grace! not so, friend; honour and lord- 
ship are my titles. \_Music within.~\ What music 
is this ? 

Serv. I do but partly know, sir: it is music in 
parts. 

Pan. Know you the musicians ? 

Serv. Wholly, sir. 

Pan. Who play they to ? 

Serv. To the hearers, sir. 

Pan. At whose pleasure, friend ? 

Serv. At mine, sir, and theirs that love music. 
Pan. Command, I mean, friend. 


Scene I] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


53 


Serv. Who shall I command, sir? 

Pan. Friend, we understand not one another: 

I am too courtly, and thou art too cunning. At 30 
whose request do these men play ? 

Serv. That’s to’t, indeed, sir : marry, sir, at the 
request of Paris my lord, who is there in person; 
with him, the mortal Venus, the heart-blood of 
beauty, love’s invisible soul. 

Pan. Who, my cousin Cressida ? 

Serv. No, sir, Helen : could not you find out that 
by her attributes ? 

Pan. It should seem, fellow, that thou hast not 
seen the Lady Cressida. I come to speak with 40 
Paris from the Prince Troilus: I will make a 
complimental assault upon him, for my business 
seethes. 

Serv. Sodden business! there’s a stewed phrase 
indeed! 


Enter Paris and Helen, attended 

Pan. Fair be to you, my lord, and to all this 
fair company! fair desires, in all fair measure, 
fairly guide them! especially to you, fair queen! 
fair thoughts be your fair pillow! 

Helen. Dear lord, you are full of fair words. 50 

Pan. You speak your fair pleasure, sweet queen. 
Fair prince, here is good broken music. 

Par. You have broke it, cousin: and, by my 
life, you shall make it whole again; you shall 
piece it out with a piece of your performance. Nell, 
he is full of harmony. 

Pan. Truly, lady, no. 


54 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act III 


Helen. O, sir, — 

Pan. Rude, in sooth; in good sooth, very rude. 

Par. Well said, my lord! well, you say so in 60 
fits. 

Pan. I have business to my lord, dear queen. 
My lord, will you vouchsafe me a word ? 

Helen. Nay, this shall not hedge us out: we’ll 
hear you sing, certainly. 

Pan. Well, sweet queen, you are pleasant with 
me. But, marry, thus, my lord: my dear lord, 
and most esteemed friend, your brother Troilus — 

Helen. My Lord Pandarus ; honey-sweet lord,— 

Pan. Go to, sweet queen, go to : — commends 70 
himself most affectionately to you — 

Helen. You shall not bob us out of our melody: 
if you do, our melancholy upon your head! 

Pan. Sweet queen, sweet queen; that’s a sweet 
queen, i’ faith. 

Helen. And to make a sweet lady sad is a sour 
offence. 

Pan. Nay, that shall not serve your turn; 
that shall it not, in truth, la. Nay, I care not 
for such words; no, no. And, my lord, he desires so 
you, that if the king call for him at supper, you 
will make his excuse. 

Helen. My Lord Pandarus, — 

Pan. What says my sweet queen, my very very 
sweet queen ? 

Par. What exploit’s in hand ? where sups he to¬ 
night ? 

Helen. Nay, but, my lord, — 

Pan. What says my sweet queen! My cousin 


Scene I] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


55 


will fall out with you. You must not know where 90 
he sups. 

Par. I’ll lay my life, with my disposer Cres- 
sida. 

Pan. No, no, no such matter; vou are wide: 
come, your disposer is sick. 

Par. Well, I’ll make excuse. 

Pan. Ay, good my lord. Why should you say 
Cressida ? no, your poor disposer’s sick. 

Par. I spy. 

Pan. You spy ! what do you spy ? Come, give 100 
me an instrument. Now, sweet queen. 

Helen. Why, this is kindly done. 

Pan. My niece is horribly in love with a thing 
you have, sweet queen. 

Helen. She shall have it, my lord, if it be not 
my lord Paris. 

Pan. He ! no, she’ll none of him ; they two are 
twain. 

Helen. Falling in, after falling out, may make 
them three. 110 

Pan. Come, come, I’ll hear no more of this; I’ll 
sing you a song now. 

Helen. Ay, ay, prithee now. By my troth, sweet 
lord, thou hast a fine forehead. 

Pan. Ay, you may, you may. 

Helen. Let thy song be love : this love will undo 
us all. O Cupid, Cupid, Cupid! 

Pan. Love ! ay, that it shall, i’ faith. 

Par. Ay, good now, love, love, nothing but 
love. 120 

Pan. In good troth, it begins so. \_Sings. 


56 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act III 


Love, love, nothing but love, still more! 

For, O, love’s bow 
Shoots buck and doe : 

The shaft confounds, 

Not that it wounds, 

But tickles still the sore. 

These lovers cry Oh ! oh ! they die : 

Ye that which seems the wound to kill, 

Doth turn oh ! oh ! to ha ! ha! he ! 130 

So dying love lives still: 

Oh ! oh ! a while, but ha! ha ! ha! 

Oh ! oh ! groans out for ha ! ha ! ha! 

Heigh-ho! 

Helen. In love, i’ faith, to the very tip of the 
nose. 

Par. He eats nothing but doves, love, and that 
breeds hot blood, and hot blood begets hot thoughts, 
and hot thoughts beget hot deeds, and hot deeds is 
love. 140 

Pan. Is this the generation of love? hot blood, 
hot thoughts and hot deeds ? Why, they are vipers : 
is love a generation of vipers? Sweet lord, who’s 
afield to-day ? 

Par. Hector, Deiphobus, Helenus, Antenor, and 
all the gallantry of Troy : I would fain have armed 
to-day, but my Nell would not have it so. How 
chance my brother Troilus went not ? 

Helen. He hangs the lip at something : you know 
all, Lord Pandarus. 150 

Pan. Not I, honey-sweet queen. I long to hear 
how they sped to-day. You’ll remember your 
brother’s excuse ? 


Scene II] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


57 


Par. To a hair. 

Pan. Farewell, sweet queen. 

Helen. Commend me to your niece. 

Pan. I will, sweet queen. [Exit. 

[A retreat sounded. 
Par. They’re come from field : let us to Priam’s 
hall. 

To greet the warriors. Sweet Helen, I must woo you 
To help unarm our Hector: his stubborn buckles, 160 
With these your white enchanting fingers touch’d, 
Shall more obey than to the edge of steel 
Or force of Greekish sinews; you shall do more 
Than all the island kings, — disarm great Hector. 
Helen. ’Twill make us proud to be his servant, 
Paris; 

Yes, what he shall receive of us in duty 
Gives us more palm in beauty than we have, 

Yea, overshines ourself. 

Par. Sweet, above thought I love thee. [Exeunt. 

Scene II — An orchard to Pandarus ’ house 
Enter Pandarus and Troilus’ Boy, meeting 

Pan. How now! where’s thy master ? at my 
cousin Cressida’s? 

Boy. No, sir; he stays for you to conduct him 
thither. 

Pan. O, here he comes. 

Enter Troilus 

How now, how now ! 

Tro. Sirrah, walk off. 

Pan. Have you seen my cousin ? 


[Exit Boy. 


58 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act III 


Tro. No, Pandarus : I stalk about her door, 

Like a strange soul upon the Stygian banks 10 

Staying for waftage. O, be thou my Charon, 

And give me swift transportance to those fields 
Where I may wallow in the lily-beds 
Proposed for the deserver ! O gentle Pandarus, 

From Cupid’s shoulder pluck his painted wings, 

And fly with me to Cressid ! 

Pan. Walk here i’ the orchard, I’ll bring her 
straight. [Exit. 

Tro. I am giddy; expectation whirls me round. 
The imaginary relish is so sweet 

That it enchants my sense : what will it be, 20 

When that the watery palates taste indeed 
Love’s thrice repured nectar ? death, I fear me, 
Swounding destruction, or some joy too fine. 

Too subtle-potent, tuned too sharp in sweetness. 

For the capacity of my ruder powers : 

I fear it much, and I do fear besides 
That I shall lose distinction in my joys. 

As doth a battle, when they charge on heaps 
The enemy flying. 


Re-enter Pandarus 

Pan. She’s making her ready, she’ll come straight: 30 
you must be witty now. She does so blush, and 
fetches her wind so short, as if she were frayed 
with a sprite: I’ll fetch her. It is the prettiest 
villain : she fetches her breath as short as a new- 
ta’en sparrow. [Exit. 

Tro. Even such a passion doth embrace my 
bosom: 


Scene II] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


59 


My heart beats thicker than a feverous pulse; 
And all my powers do their bestowing lose, 
Like vassalage at unawares encountering 
The eye of majesty. 


Re-enter Pandarus with Cressida 

Pan. Come, come, what need you blush ? 
shame’s a baby. Here she is now : swear the oaths 
now to her that you have sworn to me. What, 
are you gone again? you must be watched ere 
you be made tame, must you? Come your ways, 
come your ways; an you draw backward, we’ll 
put you i’ the fills. Why do you not speak to 
her? Come, draw this curtain, and let’s see your 
picture. Alas the day, how loath you are to offend 
daylight! an ’twere dark, you’d close sooner. 50 
So, so; rub on, and kiss the mistress. How now! 
a kiss in fee-farm! build there, carpenter; the air 
is sweet. Nay, you shall fight your hearts out ere 
I part you. The falcon as the tercel, for all the 
ducks i’ the river: go to, go to. 

Tro. You have bereft me of all words, lady. 

Pan. Words pay no debts, give her deeds: but 
she’ll bereave you o’ the deeds too, if she call 
your activity in question. What, billing again? 
Here’s ‘In witness whereof the parties inter- 60 
changeably’ — Come in, come in: I’ll go get 
a fire. [Exit. 

Cres. Will you walk in, my lord ? 

Tro. O Cressida, how often have I wished me 
thus! 


60 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act III 

Cres. Wished, my lord ? — The gods grant — 

O my lord! 

Tro. What should they grant ? what makes 
this pretty abruption ? What too curious dreg 
espies my sweet lady in the fountain of our love? 70 

Cres. More dregs than water, if my fears have 
eyes. 

Tro. Fears make devils of cherubins; they never 
see truly. 

Cres. Blind fear, that seeing reason leads, 
finds safer footing than blind reason stumbling 
without fear: to fear the worst oft cures the 
worse. 

Tro. O, let my lady apprehend no fear: in all 
Cupid’s pageant there is presented no monster. so 

Cres. Nor nothing monstrous neither? 

Tro. Nothing, but our undertakings; when 
we vow to weep seas, live in fire, eat rocks, tame 
tigers; thinking it harder for our mistress to devise 
imposition enough than for us to undergo any 
difficulty imposed. This is the monstruosity in 
love, lady, that the will is infinite and the execution 
confined, that the desire is boundless and the act 
a slave to limit. 

Cres. They say, all lovers swear more per- 90 
formance than they are able, and yet reserve an 
ability that they never perform, vowing more than 
the perfection of ten, and discharging less than 
the tenth part of one. They that have the voice of 
lions and the act of hares, are they not monsters ? 

Tro. Are there such ? such are not we: praise 
us as we are tasted, allow us as we prove; our 


Scene II] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


61 


head shall go bare till merit crown it: no perfec¬ 
tion in reversion shall have a praise in present: 
we will not name desert before his birth, and, 100 
being born, his addition shall be humble. Few 
words to fair faith : Troilus shall be such to Cressid 
as what envy can say worst shall be a mock for 
his truth, and what truth can speak truest, not 
truer than Troilus. 

Cres. Will you walk in, my lord ? 


Re-enter Pandarus 

Pan. What, blushing still? have you not done 
talking yet ? 

Cres. Well, uncle, what folly I commit, I dedi¬ 
cate to you. no 

Pan. I thank you for that: if my lord get a boy 
of you, you’ll give him me. Be true to my lord: 
if he flinch, chide me for it. 

Tro. You know now your hostages ; your uncle’s 
word and my firm faith. 

Pan. Nay, I’ll give my word for her too: our 
kindred, though they be long ere they are wooed, 
they are constant being won: they are burs, I can 
tell you; they’ll stick where they are thrown. 

Cres. Boldness comes to me now, and brings me 
heart. 120 

Prince Troilus, I have loved you night and day 
For many weary months. 

Tro. Why was my Cressid then so hard to win ? 

Cres. Hard to seem won: but I was won, my 
lord. 


62 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act III 


With the first glance that ever — pardon me ; 

If I confess much, you will play the tyrant. 

I love you now; but not, till now, so much 
But I might master it: in faith, I lie; 

My thoughts were like unbridled children, grown 
Too headstrong for their mother. See, we fools ! 130 

Why have I blabb’d ? who shall be true to us, 

When we are so unsecret to ourselves ? 

But, though I loved you well, I woo’d you not; 

And yet, good faith, I wish’d myself a man, 

Or that we women had men’s privilege 
Of speaking first. Sweet, bid me hold my tongue; 

For in this rapture I shall surely speak 
The thing I shall repent. See, see, your silence. 
Cunning in dumbness, from my weakness draws 
My very soul of counsel! Stop my mouth. 140 

Tro. And shall, albeit sweet music issues thence. 
Pan. Pretty, i’ faith. 

Cres. My lord, I do beseech you, pardon me; 

’Twas not my purpose thus to beg a kiss: 

I am ashamed ; O heavens ! what have I done ? 

For this time will I take my leave, my lord. 

Tro. Your leave, sweet Cressid ? 

Pan. Leave! an you take leave till to-morrow 
morning — 

Cres. Pray you, content you. 

Tro. What offends you, lady ? 150 

Cres. Sir, mine own company. 

Tro. You cannot shun yourself. 

Cres. Let me go and try: 

I have a kind of self resides with you, 

But an unkind self that itself will leave 


Scene II] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


63 


To be another’s fool. I would be gone: 

Where is my wit ? I know not what I speak. 

Tro. Well know they what they speak that 
speak so wisely. 

Cres. Perchance, my lord, I show more craft 
than love, 

And fell so roundly to a large confession 160 

To angle for your thoughts : but you are wise; 

Or else you love not, for to be wise and love 
Exceeds man’s might; that dwells with gods above. 

Tro. O that I thought it could be in a woman — 
As, if it can, I will presume in you — 

To feed for aye her lamp and flames of love; 

To keep her constancy in plight and youth, 

Outliving beauty’s outward, with a mind 
That doth renew swifter than blood decays! 

Or that persuasion could but thus convince me, 170 
That my integrity and truth to you 
Might be affronted with the match and weight 
Of such a winnowed purity in love; 

How were I then uplifted ! but, alas ! 

I am as true as truth’s simplicity, 

And simpler than the infancy of truth. 

Cres. In that I’ll war with you. 

Tro. O virtuous fight, 

When right with right wars who shall be most right! 
True swains in love shall in the world to come 
Approve their truths by Troilus : when their rhymes, iso 
Full of protest, of oath and big compare. 

Want similes, truth tired with iteration, 

‘As true as steel, as plantage to the moon, 

As sun to day, as turtle to her mate. 


64 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act III 


As iron to adamant, as earth to the centre,’ 

Yet, after all comparisons of truth, 

As truth’s authentic author to be cited, 

‘As true as Troilus’ shall crown up the verse 
And sanctify the numbers. 

Cres. Prophet may you be ! 

If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth, 190 

When time is old and hath forgot itself, 

When waterdrops have worn the stones of Troy, 

And blind oblivion swallow’d cities up, 

And mighty states characterless are grated 
To dusty nothing, yet let memory, 

From false to false, among false maids in love, 

Upbraid my falsehood! when they’ve said ‘ as false 
As air, as water, wind, or sandy earth, 

As fox to lamb, or wolf to heifer’s calf, 

Pard to the hind, or stepdame to her son,’ 200 

‘Yea,’ let them say, to stick the heart of falsehood, 
‘As false as Cressid.’ 

Pan. Go to, a bargain made: seal it, seal it; 

I’ll be the witness. Here I hold your hand; here 
my cousin’s. If ever you prove false one to an¬ 
other, since I have taken such pains to bring you 
together, let all pitiful goers-between be called 
to the world’s end after my name; call them all 
Pandars; let all constant men be Troiluses, all 
false women Cressids, and all brokers-between 210 
Panders! Say‘amen.’ 

Tro. Amen. 

Cres. Amen. 

Pan. Amen. Whereupon I will show you a 
chamber with a bed; which bed, because it shall 


Scene III] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


65 


not speak of your pretty encounters, press it to 
death : away ! [Exeunt Tro. and Cres. 

And Cupid grant all tongue-tied maidens here 
Bed, chamber, Pandar to provide this gear! 

[Exit. 


Scene III — The Grecian camp 

Flourish. Enter Agamemnon, Ulysses, Diomedes, 
Nestor, Ajax, Menelaus, and Calchas 

Cal. Now, princes, for the service I have done 
you, 

The advantage of the time prompts me aloud 
To call for recompense. Appear it to your mind 
That, through the sight I bear in things to love, 

I have abandon’d Troy, left my possession, 

Incurr’d a traitor’s name ; exposed myself, 

From certain and possess’d conveniences, 

To doubtful fortunes; sequestering from me all 
That time, acquaintance, custom and condition 
Made tame and most familiar to my nature. 

And here, to do you service, am become 
As new into the world, strange, unacquainted: 

I do beseech you, as in way of taste, 

To give me now a little benefit, 

Out of those many register’d in promise. 

Which, you say, live to come in my behalf. 

Agam. What wouldst thou of us, Trojan ? make 
demand. 

Cal. You have a Trojan prisoner, call’d Antenor, 
Yesterday took : Troy holds him very dear. 

Oft have you — often have you thanks therefore — 
Desired my Cressid in right great exchange, 


66 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act III 


Whom Troy hath still denied: but this Antenor, 

I know, is such a wrest in their affairs, 

That their negotiations all must slack, 

Wanting his manage; and they will almost 
Give us a prince of blood, a son of Priam, 

In change of him : let him be sent, great princes. 

And he shall buy my daughter; and her presence 
Shall quite strike off all service I have done, 

In most accepted pain. 

Agam. Let Diomedes bear him, 30 

And bring us Cressid hither: Calchas shall have 
What he requests of us. Good Diomed, 

Furnish you fairly for this interchange : 

Withal, bring word if Hector will to-morrow 
Be answer’d in his challenge: Ajax is ready. 

Dio. This shall I undertake; and ’tis a burthen 
Which I am proud to bear. 

[.Exeunt Diomedes and Calchas. 

Enter Achilles and Patroclus, before their tent 

Ulyss. Achilles stands i’ the entrance of his tent: 
Please it our general to pass strangely by him. 

As if he were forgot; and, princes all, 40 

Lay negligent and loose regard upon him: 

I will come last. ’Tis like he’ll question me 
Why such unplausive eyes are bent on him: 

If so, I have derision medicinable, 

To use between your strangeness and his pride. 

Which his own will shall have desire to drink. 

It may do good : pride hath no other glass 
To show itself but pride, for supple knees 
Feed arrogance and are the proud man’s fees. 


Scene III] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


67 


Agam. We’ll execute your purpose and put on 50 
A form of strangeness as we pass along; 

So do each lord, and either greet him not 
Or else disdainfully, which shall shake him more 
Than if not look’d on. I will lead the way. 

Achil. What, comes the general to speak with me ? 
You know my mind; I’ll fight no more ’gainst Troy. 
Agam,. What says Achilles ? would he aught 
with us ? 

Nest. Would you, my lord, aught with the gen¬ 
eral ? 


Achil. 

No. 


Nest. 

Nothing, my lord. 


Agam. 

The better. 



[.Exeunt Agamemnon and Nestor. 

Achil. 

Good day, good day. 


Men. 

How do you ? how do you ? 

{Exit. 

Achil. 

What, does the cuckold scorn 

me ? 

Ajax. 

How now, Patroclus! 


Achil. 

Good morning, Ajax. 


Ajax. 

Ha? 


Achil. 

Good morrow. 


Ajax. 

Ay, and good next day too. 

{Exit. 

Achil. 

What mean these fellows? 

Know they 

not Achilles ? 


Pair. 

They pass by strangely: they were used 


to bend, 

To send their smiles before them to Achilles, 

To come as humbly as they used to creep 
To holy altars. 

Achil. What, am I poor of late ? 

’Tis certain, greatness, once fall’n out with fortune, 


68 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act III 

Must fail out with men too : what the declined is, 

He shall as soon read in the eyes of others 

As feel in his own fall: for men, like butterflies, 

Show not their mealy wings but to the summer; 

And not a man, for being simply man, so 

Hath any honour, but honour for those honours 
That are without him, as place, riches, and favour, 
Prizes of accident as oft as merit: 

Which when they fall, as being slippery standers. 

The love that lean’d on them as slippery too, 

Do one pluck down another and together 
Die in the fall. But ’tis not so with me : 

Fortune and I are friends : I do enjoy 
At ample point all that I did possess. 

Save these men’s looks; who do, methinks, find out 90 
Something not worth in me such rich beholding 
As they have often given. Here is Ulysses: 

I’ll interrupt his reading. 

How now, Ulysses! 

TJlyss. Now, great Thetis’ son ! 

Achil. What are you reading ? 

Ulyss. A strange fellow here 

Writes me : ‘That man, how dearly ever parted, 

How much in having, or without or in, 

Cannot make boast to have that which he hath, 

Nor feels not what he owes, but by reflection; 

As when his virtues shining upon others 100 

Heat them, and they retort that heat again 
To the first giver.’ 

Achil. This is not strange, Ulysses. 

The beauty that is borne here in the face 
The bearer knows not, but commends itself 


Scene III] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


69 


To others’ eyes: nor doth the eye itself, 

That most pure spirit of sense, behold itself, 

Not going from itself; but eye to eye opposed 
Salutes each other with each other’s form: 

For speculation turns not to itself, 

Till it hath travell’d and is mirror’d there 
Where it may see itself. This is not strange at all. 

TJlyss. I do not strain at the position — 

It is familiar — but at the author’s drift; 

Who in his circumstance expressly proves 
That no man is the lord of any thing, 

Though in and of him there be much consisting, 

Till he communicate his parts to others; 

Nor doth he of himself know them for aught, 

Till he behold them formed in the applause 
Where they’re extended; who, like an arch, rever¬ 
berates 

The voice again; or, like a gate of steel 
Fronting the sun, receives and renders back 
His figure and his heat. I was much rapt in this; 
And apprehended here immediately 
The unknown Ajax. 

Heavens, what a man is there ! a very horse ; 

That has he knows not what. Nature, what things 
there are, 

Most abject in regard and dear in use! 

What things again most dear in the esteem 
And poor in worth ! Now shall we see to-morrow — 
An act that very chance doth throw upon him — 
Ajax renown’d. O heavens, what some men do, 
While some men leave to do! 

How some men creep in skittish fortune’s hall, 


70 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act III 


Whiles others play the idiots in her eyes! 

How one man eats into another’s pride, 

While pride is fasting in his wantonness! 

To see these Grecian lords! Why, even already 
They clap the lubber Ajax on the shoulder, 

As if his foot were on brave Hector’s breast 
And great Troy shrieking. 

Achil. I do believe it; for they pass’d by me 
As misers do by beggars, neither gave to me 
Good word nor look : what, are my deeds forgot ? 

Ulyss. Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back 
Wherein he puts alms for oblivion, 

A great-sized monster of ingratitudes : 

Those scraps are good deeds past, which are devour’d 
As fast as they are made, forgot as soon 
As done : perseverance, dear my lord, 

Keeps honour bright: to have done, is to hang 
Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail 
In monumental mockery. Take the instant way; 
For honour travels in a strait so narrow, 

Where one but goes abreast: keep then the path; 
For emulation hath a thousand sons 
That one by one pursue: if you give way, 

Or hedge aside from the direct forthright. 

Like to an enter’d tide they all rush by 
And leave you hindmost: 

Or, like a gallant horse fall’n in first rank, 

Lie there for pavement to the abject rear, 

O’er-run and trampled on: then what they do in 
present, 

Though less than yours in past, must o’ertop yours; 
For time is like a fashionable host 


Scene III] , TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


71 


That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand, 
And with his arms outstretch’d, as he would fly, 
Grasps in the comer : welcome ever smiles, 

And farewell goes out sighing. O, let not virtue seek 
Remuneration for the thing it was; 170 

For beauty, wit, 

High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service, 

Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all 
To envious and calumniating time. 

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin; 

That all with one consent praise new-born gawds, 
Though they are made and moulded of things past. 
And give to dust that is a little gilt 
More laud than gilt o’er-dusted. 

The present eye praises the present object: iso 

Then marvel not, thou great and complete man. 

That all the Greeks begin to worship Ajax; 

Since things in motion sooner catch the eye 
Than what not stirs. The cry went once on thee, 

And still it might, and yet it may again, 

If thou wouldst not entomb thyself alive 
And case thy reputation in thy tent. 

Whose glorious deeds, but in these fields of late, 

Made emulous missions ’mongst the gods themselves, 
And drave great Mars to faction. 

Achil. ' Of this my privacy 190 

I have strong reasons. 

Ulyss. But ’gainst your privacy 

The reasons are more potent and heroical: 

’Tis known, Achilles, that you are in love 
With one of Priam’s daughters. 

Achil. 


Ha! known ? 


72 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act III 


XJlyss. Is that a wonder ? 

The providence that’s in a watchful state 
Knows almost every grain of Plutus’ gold, 

Finds bottom in the uncomprehensive deeps. 

Keeps place with thought, and almost like the gods 
Does thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles. 200 

There is a mystery, with whom relation 
Durst never meddle, in the soul of state; 

Which hath an operation more divine 
Than breath or pen can give expressure to: 

All the commerce that you have had with Troy 
As perfectly is ours as yours, my lord; 

And better would it fit Achilles much 
To throw down Hector than Polyxena: 

But it must grieve young Pyrrhus now at home. 

When fame shall in our islands sound her trump; 210 

And all the Greekish girls shall tripping sing 
‘Great Hector’s sister did Achilles win, 

But our great Ajax bravely beat down him.’ 

Farewell, my lord : I as your lover speak; 

The fool slides o’er the ice that you should break. 

[Exit. 

Pair. To this effect, Achilles, have I moved you : 

A woman impudent and mannish grown 
Is not more loathed than an effeminate man 
In time of action. I stand condemn’d for this; 

They think my little stomach to the war 220 

And your great love to me restrains you thus: 

Sweet, rouse yourself, and the weak wanton Cupid 
Shall from your neck unloose his armorous fold, 

And, like a dew-drop from the lion’s mane, 

Be shook to air. 


Scene III] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


73 


Achil. Shall Ajax fight with Hector ? 

Patr. Ay, and perhaps receive much honour by 
him. 

Achil. I see my reputation is at stake; 

My fame is shrewdly gored. 

Patr. O, then, beware ; 

Those wounds heal ill that men do give themselves: 
Omission to do what is necessary 230 

Seals a commission to a blank of danger; 

And danger, like an ague, subtly taints 
Even then when we sit idly in the sun. 

Achil. Go call Thersites hither, sweet Patroclus: 
I’ll send the fool to Ajax, and desire him 
To invite the Trojan lords after the combat 
To see us here unarm’d : I have a woman’s longing, 

An appetite that I am sick withal, 

To see great Hector in his weeds of peace; 

To talk with him, and to behold his visage, 240 

Even to my full of view. — A labour saved ! 

Enter Thersites 

Ther. A wonder! 

Achil. What ? 

Ther. Ajax goes up and down the field, asking 
for himself. 

Achil. How so ? 

Ther. He must fight singly to-morrow with Hec¬ 
tor, and is so prophetically proud of an heroical 
cudgelling that he raves in saying nothing. 

Achil. How can that be ? 250 

Ther. Why, a’ stalks up and down like a peacock, 

— astride and a stand: ruminates like an hostess 


74 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act III 

that hath no arithmetic but her brain to set down 
her reckoning: bites his lip with a politic regard, 
as who should say ‘There were wit in this head, 
an ’twould out: ’ and so there is; but it lies as 
coldly in him as fire in a flint, which will not show 
without knocking. The man’s undone for ever; 
for if Hector break not his neck i’ the combat, 
he’ll break ’t himself in vain-glory. He knows 260 
not me: I said ‘Good morrow, Ajax;’ and he 
replies ‘Thanks, Agamemnon.’ What think you 
of this man, that takes me for the general? He’s 
grown a very land-fish, languageless, a monster. 

A plague of opinion! a man may wear it on both 
sides like a leather jerkin. 

Achil. Thou must be my ambassador to him, 
Ther sites. 

Ther. Who, I ? why, he’ll answer nobody; he 
professes not answering : speaking is for beggars ; 270 
he wears his tongue in his arms. I will put on his 
presence: let Patroclus make demands to me, you 
shall see the pageant of Ajax. 

Achil. To him, Patroclus: tell him I humbly 
desire the valiant Ajax to invite the most valor¬ 
ous Hector to come unarmed to my tent, and to 
procure safe-conduct for his person of the mag¬ 
nanimous and most illustrious six-or-seven-times- 
honoured captain-general of the Grecian army, 
Agamemnon, et cetera. Do this. 280 

Patr. Jove bless great Ajax ! 

Ther. Hum! 

Patr. I come from the worthy Achilles, — 

Ther. Ha! 


Scene III] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


75 


Patr. Who most humbly desires you to invite 
Hector to his tent, — 

Ther. Hum! 

Patr. And to procure safe-conduct from Aga- 


memnon. 

Ther. 

Agamemnon ? 

Patr. 

Ay, my lord. 

Ther. 

Ha! 

Patr. 

What say you to’t ? 

Ther. 

God be wi’ you, with all my heart. 

Patr. 

Your answer, sir. 

Ther. 

If to-morrow be a fair day, by eleven of 


the clock it will go one way or other: howsoever, 
he shall pay for me ere he has me. 

Patr. Your answer, sir. 

Ther. Fare you well, with all my heart. 300 

Achil. Why, but he is not in this tune, is he? 

Ther. No, but he’s out o’ tune thus. What 
music will be in him when Hector has knocked out his 
brains, I know not; but, I am sure, none, unless the 
fiddler Apollo get his sinews to make catlings on. 

Achil. Come, thou shalt bear a letter to him 
straight. 

Ther. Let me bear another to his horse; for 
that’s the more capable creature. 

Achil. My mind is troubled like a fountain stirr’d, 310 
And I myself see not the bottom of it. 

\_Exeunt Achilles and Patroclus. 

Ther. Would the fountain of your mind were 
clear again, that I might water an ass at it! I had 
rather be a tick in a sheep than such a valiant 
ignorance._ [Exit. 



76 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act IV 


ACT IV 

Scene I — Troy. A street 

Enter, at one side, Aeneas, and Servant with a torch; at 
the other, Paris, Deiphobus, Antenor, Diomedes, and 
others, with torches 

Par. See, ho ! who is that there ? 

Dei. It is the Lord iEneas. 

^Ene. Is the prince there in person ? 

Had I so good occasion to lie long 
As you, Prince Paris, nothing but heavenly busi¬ 
ness 

Should rob my bed-mate of my company. 

Dio. That’s my mind too. Good morrow, Lord 
iEneas. 

Par. A valiant Greek, dEneas, — take his hand, — 
Witness the process of your speech, wherein 
You told how Diomed a whole week by days 
Did haunt you in the field. 

sEne. Health to you, valiant sir, 

During all question of the gentle truce; 

But when I meet you arm’d, as black defiance 
As heart can think or courage execute. 

Dio. The one and other Diomed embraces. 

Our bloods are now in calm; and, so long, health; 
But when contention and occasion meet, 

By Jove, I’ll play the hunter for thy life 

With all my force, pursuit and policy. . 

jEne. And thou shalt hunt a lion, that will fly 
With his face backward. In humane gentleness, 
Welcome to Troy! now, by Anchises’ life, 

Welcome, indeed! By Venus’ hand I swear. 


Scene I] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


77 


No man alive can love in such a sort 
The thing he means to kill more excellently. 

Dio. We sympathise. Jove, let iEneas live, 

If to my sword his fate be not the glory, 

A thousand complete courses of the sun! 

But, in mine emulous honour, let him die, 

With every joint a wound, and that to-morrow. 
jEne. We know each other well. 

Dio. We do; and long to know each other 
worse. 

Par. This is the most despiteful gentle greeting, 
The noblest hateful love, that e’er I heard of. 

What business, lord, so early ? 

JEne. I was sent for to the king; but why, I 
know not. 

Par. His purpose meets you : ’twas to bring this 
Greek 

To Calchas’ house; and there to render him, 

For the enfreed Antenor, the fair Cressid : 

Let’s have your company, or, if you please, 

Haste there before us. I constantly do think, 

Or rather, call my thought a certain knowledge, 

My brother Troilus lodges there to-night: 

Rouse him and give him note of our approach. 

With the whole quality wherefore : I fear 
We shall be much unwelcome. 

JEne. That I assure you : 

Troilus had rather Troy were borne to Greece 
Than Cressid borne from Troy. 

Par. There is no help; 

The bitter disposition of the time 
Will have it so. On, lord, we’ll follow you. 


78 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act IV 


JEne. Good morrow, all. \_Exit with Servant. 
Par. And tell me, noble Diomed, faith, tell me 
true, 

Even in the soul of sound good-fellowship, 

Who, in your thoughts, deserves fair Helen best, 
Myself or Menelaus ? 

Dio. Both alike: 

He merits well to have her that doth seek her, 

Not making any scruple of her soilure, 

With such a hell of pain and world of charge. 

And you as well to keep her, that defend her, eo 

Not palating the taste of her dishonour, 

With such a costly loss of wealth and friends: 

He, like a puling cuckold, would drink up 
The lees and dregs of a flat tamed piece; 

You, like a lecher, out of whorish loins 
Are pleased to breed out your inheritors : 

Both merits poised, each weighs nor less nor more, 

But he as he, the heavier for a whore. 

Par. You are too bitter to your countrywoman. 
Dio. She’s bitter to her country; hear me, Paris : 70 
For every false drop in her bawdy veins 
A Grecian’s life hath sunk; for every scruple 
Of her contaminated carrion weight, 

A Trojan hath been slain: since she could speak. 

She hath not given so many good words breath 
As for her Greeks and Trojans suffer’d death. 

Par. Fair Diomed, you do as chapmen do, 
Dispraise the thing that you desire to buy: 

But we in silence hold this virtue well, 

We’ll not commend what we intend to sell. so 

Here lies our way. [Exeunt. 


Scene II] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


79 


Scene II — Court of Pandarus ’ house 
Enter Troilus and Cressida 

Tro. Dear, trouble not yourself : the morn is cold. 
Cres. Then, sweet my lord, I’ll call mine uncle 
down; 

He shall unbolt the gates. 

Tro. Trouble him not; 

To bed, to bed: sleep kill those pretty eyes, 

And give as soft attachment to thy senses 
As infants’ empty of all thought! 

Cres. Good morrow, then. 

Tro. I prithee now, to bed. 

Cres. Are you a-weary of me ? 

Tro. O Cressida ! but that the busy day, 

Waked by the lark, hath roused the ribald crows, 
And dreaming night will hide our joys no longer, 

I would not from thee. 

Cres. Night hath been too brief. 

Tro. Beshrew the witch ! with venomous wights 
she stays 

As tediously as hell, but flies the grasps of love 
With wings more momentary-swift than thought. 
You will catch cold, and curse me. 

Cres. Prithee, tarry: 

You men will never tarry. 

O foolish Cressid! I might have still held off. 

And then you would have tarried. Hark! there’s 
one up. 

Pan. [ Within ] What, ’s all the doors open here ? 
Tro. It is your uncle. 

Cres. A pestilence on him ! now will he be mock¬ 
ing : I shall have such a life! 


80 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act IV 


Enter Pandarus 

Pan. How now, how now! how go maiden¬ 
heads ? Here, you maid! where’s my cousin 
Cressid ? 

Cres. Go hang yourself, you naughty mocking 
uncle! 

You bring me to do — and then you flout me too. 

Pan. To do what? to do what? let her say 
what: what have I brought you to do ? 

Cres. Come, come, beshrew your heart! you’ll 
ne’er be good, nor suffer others. 30 

Pan. Ha, ha! Alas, poor wretch! ah, poor 
capocchia! hast not slept to-night ? would he not, 
a naughty man, let it sleep ? a bugbear take him! 
Cres. Did not I tell you ? would he were knock’d 
i’ the head ! [One knocks. 

Who’s that at door ? good uncle, go and see. 

My lord, come you again into my chamber. 

You smile and mock me, as if I meant naughtily. 

Tro. Ha, ha! 

Cres. Come, you are deceived, I think of no such 
thing. [Knocking. 

How earnestly they knock! Pray you, come in: 40 
I would not for half Troy have you seen here. 

[Exeunt Troilus and Cressida. 
Pan. Who’s there ? what’s the matter ? will you 
beat down the door ? How now! what’s the 
matter ? 

Enter .Eneas 

;Ene. Good morrow, lord, good morrow. 

Pan. Who’s there? my lord ^Eneas ! By my troth, 

I. knew you not: what news with you so early ? 


Scene II] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


81 


2 Ene. Is not prince Troilus here ? 

Pan. Here ! what should he do here ? 

JEne. Come, he is here, my lord; do not deny 
him: 50 

It doth import him much to speak with me. 

Pan. Is he here, say you ? ’tis more than I know, 

I’ll be sworn: for my own part, I came in late. 
What should he do here ? 

jEne. Who! nay, then: come, come, you’ll do 
him wrong ere you are ware: you’ll be so true 
to him, to be false to him: do not you know of 
him, but yet go fetch him hither; go. 

Re-enter Troilus 

Tro. How now ! what’s the matter ? 
jEne. My lord, I scarce have leisure to salute you, 60 
My matter is so rash: there is at hand 
Paris your brother and Deiphobus, 

The Grecian Diomed, and our Antenor 
Deliver’d to us; and for him forthwith, 

Ere the first sacrifice, within this hour. 

We must give up to Diomedes’ hand 
The Lady Cressida. 

Tro. Is it so concluded ? 

fflne. By Priam and the general state of Troy: 
They are at hand and ready to effect it. 

Tro. How my achievements mock me ! 70 

I will go meet them: and, my Lord iEneas, 

We met by chance: you did not find me here. 

JEne. Good, good, my lord; the secrets of nature 
Have not more gift in taciturnity. 

\_Exeunt Troilus and jEneas. 


82 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act IV 


Pan. Is ’t possible? no sooner got but lost? 
The devil take Antenor! the young prince will 
go mad: a plague upon Antenor! I would they 
had broke ’s neck ! 

Re-enter Cressida 

Cres. How now! what’s the matter ? who was 
here ? so 

Pan. Ah, ah! 

Cres. Why sigh you so profoundly ? where’s 
my lord ? gone! Tell me, sweet uncle, what’s the 
matter ? 

Pan. Would I were as deep under the earth as 
I am above! 

Cres. O the gods ! What’s the matter ? 

Pan. Prithee, get thee in: would thou hadst 
ne’er been born ! I knew thou wouldst be his death : 

O, poor gentleman ! A plague upon Antenor ! 90 

Cres. Good uncle, I beseech you, on my knees I 
beseech you, what’s the matter ? 

Pan. Thou must be gone, wench, thou must be 
gone; thou art changed for Antenor: thou must 
to thy father, and be gone from Troilus: ’twill 
be his death; ’twill be his bane; he cannot bear it. 

Cres. O you immortal gods! I will not go. 

Pan. Thou must. 

Cres. I will not, uncle : I have forgot my father; 

I know no touch of consanguinity; 100 

No kin, no love, no blood, no soul so near me 
As the sweet Troilus. O you gods divine! 

Make Cressid’s name the very crown of falsehood. 

If ever she leave Troilus! Time, force, and death. 


Scene IV] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


63 


Do to this body what extremes you can; 

But the strong base and building of my love 
Is as the very centre of the earth, 

Drawing all things to it. I’ll go in and weep, — 
Pan. Do, do. 

Cres. Tear my bright hair and scratch my praised 
cheeks, 

Crack my clear voice with sobs, and break my heart 
With sounding Troilus. I will not go from Troy. 

\_Exeunt. 

Scene III — Before Pandarus’ house 

Enter Paris, Troilus, JSneas, Deiphobus, 
Antenor, and Diomedes 

Par. It is great morning, and the hour prefix’d 
For her delivery to this valiant Greek 
Comes fast upon : good my brother Troilus, 

Tell you the lady what she is to do. 

And haste her to the purpose. 

Tro. Walk into her house; 

I’ll bring her to the Grecian presently: 

And to his hand when I deliver her, 

Think it an altar, and thy brother Troilus 
A priest, there offering to it his own heart. [Exit. 

Par. I know what ’tis to love; 

And would, as I shall pity, I could help! 

Please you walk in, my lords. [Exeunt. 


Scene IV — A room in Pandarus ’ house 
Enter Pandarus and Cressida 

Pan. Be moderate, be moderate. 

Cres. Why tell you me of moderation ? 


84 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act IV 

The grief is fine, full, perfect, that I taste. 

And violenteth in a sense as strong 

As that which causeth it: how can I moderate it ? 

If I could temporise with my affection. 

Or brew it to a weak and colder palate. 

The like allayment could I give my grief: 

My love admits no qualifying dross; 

No more my grief, in such a precious loss. 10 

Enter Troilus 

Pan. Here, here, here he comes. Ah, sweet 
ducks! 

Cres. O Troilus ! Troilus ! [ Embracing him. 

Pan. What a pair of spectacles is here! Let 
me embrace too. ‘O heart,’ as the goodly saying 
is, 

‘O heart, heavy heart, 

Why sigh’st thou without breaking ? ’ 

where he answers again, 

‘Because thou canst not ease thy smart 

By friendship nor by speaking. 20 

There was never a truer rhyme. Let us cast away 
nothing, for we may live to have need of such a 
verse : we see it, we see it. How now, lambs ! 

Tro. Cressid, I love thee in so strain’d a purity, 
That the blest gods, as angry with my fancy, 

More bright in zeal than the devotion which 
Cold lips blow to their deities, take thee from me. 

Cres. Have the gods envy ? 

Pan. Ay, ay, ay, ay; ’tis too plain a case. 

Cres. And is it true that I must go from Troy ? 


30 


Scene IV] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


85 


Tro. 

Cres. 

Tro. 

Cres. 


A hateful truth. 


What, and from Troilus too ? 


From Troy and Troilus. 


Is it possible ? 


Tro. And suddenly ; where injury of chance 
Puts back leave-taking, justles roughly by 
All time of pause, rudely beguiles our lips 
Of all rejoindure, forcibly prevents 
Our lock’d embrasures, strangles our dear vows 
Even in the birth of our own labouring breath: 

We two, that with so many thousand sighs 

Did buy each other, must poorly sell ourselves 40 

With the rude brevity and discharge of one. 

Injurious time now with a robber’s haste 
Crams his rich thievery up, he knows not how: 

As many farewells as be stars in heaven. 

With distinct breath and consign’d kisses to them, 

He fumbles up into a loose adieu, 

And scants us with a single famish’d kiss. 

Distasted with the salt of broken tears. 

ffine. [ Within ] My lord, is the lady ready ? 

Tro. Hark! you are call’d : some say the Genius 
so 50 

Cries ‘ Come! ’ to him that instantly must die. 

Bid them have patience; she shall come anon. 

Pan. Where are my tears ? rain, to lay this wind, 
or my heart will be blown up by the root. \_Exit. 
Cres. I must then to the Grecians ? 

7> 0 . No remedy. 

Cres. A woeful Cressid ’mongst the merry Greeks! 
When shall we see again? 

Tro. Hear me, my love: be thou but true of heart, 


86 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act IV 

Cres. I true! how now! what wicked deem is 
this ? 

Tro. Nay, we must use expostulation kindly, 60 
For it is parting from us : 

I speak not ‘be thou true,’ as fearing thee; 

For I will throw my glove to Death himself, 

That there’s no maculation in thy heart: 

But ‘be thou true’ say I, to fashion in 
My sequent protestation; be thou true, 

And I will see thee. 

Cres. O, you shall be exposed, my lord, to dangers 
As infinite as imminent: but I’ll be true. 

Tro. And I’ll grow friend with danger. Wear 
this sleeve. 70 

Cres. And you this glove. When shall I see you ? 
Tro. I will corrupt the Grecian sentinels. 

To give thee nightly visitation. 

But yet, be true. 

Cres. O heavens ! ‘ Be true ’ again ! 

Tro. Hear why I speak it, love : 

The Grecian youths are full of quality; 

They’re loving, well composed with gifts of nature, 
Flowing and swelling o’er with arts and exercise : 
How novelty may move, and parts with person, 

Alas, a kind of godly jealousy— so 

Which, I beseech you, call a virtuous sin — 

Makes me afeard. 

Cres. O heavens ! you love me not. 

Tro. Die I a villain then ! 

In this I do not call your faith in question, 

So mainly as my merit: I cannot sing, 

Nor heel the high lavolt, nor sweeten talk, 


Scene IV] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


87 


Nor play at subtle games; fair virtues all, 

To which the Grecians are most prompt and preg¬ 
nant : 

But I can tell that in each grace of these 
There lurks a still and dumb-discoursive devil 90 

That tempts most cunningly : but be not tempted. 
Cres. Do you think I will ? 

Tro. No: 

But something may be done that we will not: 

And sometimes we are devils to ourselves, 

When we will tempt the frailty of our powers. 
Presuming on their changeful potency. 

Mne. [Within ] Nay, good my lord ! 

Tro. Come, kiss ; and let us part. 

Par. [ Within ] Brother Troilus ! 

Tro. Good brother, come you hither; 

And bring dEneas and the Grecian with you. 100 

Cres. My lord, will you be true ? 

Tro. Who, I ? alas, it is my vice, my fault: 

Whiles others fish with craft for great opinion, 

I with great truth catch mere simplicity; 

Whilst some with cunning gild their copper crowns, 
With truth and plainness I do wear mine bare. 

Fear not my truth : the moral of my wit 
Is ‘plain and true’; there’s all the reach of it. 

Enter ^Eneas, Paris, Antenor, Deiphobus, and Diomedes 

Welcome, Sir Diomed ! here is the lady 
Which for Antenor we deliver you : 

At the port, lord, I’ll give her to thy hand; 

And by the way possess thee what she is. 

Entreat her fair; and, by my soul, fair Greek, 


no 


88 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act IV 


If e’er thou stand at mercy of my sword, 

Name Cressid, and thy life shall be as safe 
As Priam is in Ilion. 

Dio. Fair Lady Cressid, 

So please you, save the thanks this prince expects: 
The lustre in your eye, heaven in your cheek. 

Pleads your fair usage; and to Diomed 

You shall be mistress, and command him wholly. 120 

Tro. Grecian, thou dost not use me courteously, 

To shame the zeal of my petition to thee 
In praising her: I tell thee, lord of Greece, 

She is far high-soaring o’er thy praises 
As thou unworthy to be call’d her servant. 

I charge thee use her well, even for my charge; 

For, by the dreadful Pluto, if thou dost not. 

Though the great bulk Achilles be thy guard, 

I’ll cut thy throat. 

Dio. O, be not moved, Prince Troilus : 

Let me be privileged by my place and message 130 
To be a speaker free; when I am hence. 

I’ll answer to my lust: and know you, lord. 

I’ll nothing do on charge : to her own worth 
She shall be prized; but that you say ‘Be ’t so,’ 

I’ll speak it in my spirit and honour ‘No!’ 

Tro. Come, to the port. I’ll tell thee, Diomed, 

This brave shall oft make thee to hide thy head. 

Lady, give me your hand; and, as we walk, 

To our own selves bend we our needful talk. 

[Exeunt Troilus , Cressida, and Diomedes. 

[A trumpet sounds. 

Par. Hark! Hector’s trumpet. 

Ane. How have we spent this morning! 140 


Scene V] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


89 


The prince must think me tardy and remiss, 

That swore to ride before him to the field. 

Par. ’Tis Troilus’ fault: come, come, to field with 
him. 

Dei. Let us make ready straight. 

JEne. Yea, with a bridegroom’s fresh alacrity, 
Let us address to tend on Hector’s heels: 

The glory of our Troy doth this day lie 

On his fair worth and single chivalry. [ Exeunt. 

Scene V — The Grecian camjp. Lists set out 

Enter Ajax, armed; Agamemnon, Achilles, Patroclus, 
Menelaus, Ulysses, Nestor, and others 

Agam. Here art thou in appointment fresh and 
fair, 

Anticipating time with starting courage. 

Give with thy trumpet a loud note to Troy, 

Thou dreadful Ajax, that the appalled air 
May pierce the head of the great combatant 
And hale him hither. 

Ajax. Thou, trumpet, there’s my purse. 

Now crack thy lungs, and split thy brazen pipe: 
Blow, villain, till thy sphered bias cheek 
Outswell the colic of puff’d Aquilon : 

Come, stretch thy chest, and let thy eyes spout 
blood; 

Thou blow’st for Hector. [Trumpet sounds. 

TJlyss. No trumpet answers. 

Achil. ’Tis but early days. 

Agam. Is not yond Diomed, with Calchas’ 
daughter ? 

Ulyss. ’Tis he, I ken the manner of his gait; 


90 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act IV 


He rises on the toe : that spirit of his 
In aspiration lifts him from the earth. 

Enter Diomedes, with Cressida 

Agam. Is this the Lady Cressid ? 

Dio. Even she. 

Agam. Most dearly welcome to the Greeks, sweet 
lady. 

Nest. Our general doth salute you with a kiss. 
Ulyss. Yet is the kindness but particular; 20 

’Twere better she were kiss’d in general. 

Nest. And very courtly counsel: I’ll begin. 

So much for Nestor. 

Achil. I’ll take that winter from your lips, fair 
lady: 

Achilles bids you welcome. 

Men. I had good argument for kissing once. 

Pair. But that’s no argument for kissing now; 

For thus popp’d Paris in his hardiment, 

And parted thus you and your argument. 

Ulyss. O deadly gall, and theme of all our scorns ! 30 
For which we lose our heads to gild his horns. 

Patr. The first was Menelaus’ kiss ; this, mine : 
Patroclus kisses you. 

Men. O, this is trim ! 

Patr. Paris and I kiss evermore for him. 

Men. I’ll have my kiss, sir. Lady, by your leave. 
Cres. In kissing, do you render or receive ? 

Patr. Both take and give. 

Cres. I’ll make my match to live. 

The kiss you take is better than you give; 

Therefore no kiss. 


Scene V] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


91 


Men. I’ll give you boot, I’ll give you three for one. 40 
Cres. You’re an odd man; give even, or give 
none. 

Men. An odd man, lady ! every man is odd. 

Cres. No, Paris is not; for, you know, ’tis true. 
That you are odd, and he is even with you. 

Men. You fillip me o’ the head. 

Cres. No, I’ll be sworn. 

Ulyss. It were no match, your nail against his 
horn. 

May I, sweet lady, beg a kiss of you ? 

Cres. You may. 

Ulyss. I do desire it. 

Cres. Why, beg then. 

Ulyss. Why then, for Venus’ sake, give me a kiss, 
When Helen is a maid again, and his. 50 

Cres. I am your debtor; claim it when ’tis due. 
Ulyss. Never’s my day, and then a kiss of 
you. 

Dio. Lady, a word : I’ll bring you to your father. 

[Exit with Cressida. 
Nest. A woman of quick sense. 

Ulyss. Fie, fie upon her! 

There’s language in her eye, her cheek, her lip, 

Nay, her foot speaks; her wanton spirits look out 
At every joint and motive of her body. 

O, these encounterers, so glib of tongue, 

That give accosting welcome ere it comes, 

And wide unclasp the tables of their thoughts 60 

To every ticklish reader ! set them down 
For sluttish spoils of opportunity, 

And daughters of the game. [ Trumpet within. 


92 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act IV 


All. The Trojans’ trumpet. 

Agam. Yonder comes the troop. 

Flourish. Enter Hector, armed; ACneas, Troilus, 
and other Trojans, with Attendants 

Mne. Hail, all the state of Greece! what shall 
be done 

To him that victory commands ? or do you purpose 
A victor shall be known ? will you the knights 
Shall to the edge of all extremity 
Pursue each other, or shall they be divided 
By any voice or order of the field ? 

Hector bade ask. 

Agam. Which way would Hector have it ? 

AZne. He cares not; he’ll obey conditions. 

Achil. ’Tis done like Hector; but securely done, 
A little proudly, and great deal misprizing 
The knight opposed. 

AHne. If not Achilles, sir, 

What is your name ? 

Achil. If not Achilles, nothing. 

AZne. Therefore Achilles: but, whate’er, know 
this: 

In the extremity of great and little. 

Valour and pride excel themselves in Hector; 

The one almost as infinite as all, 

The other blank as nothing. Weigh him well, 

And that which looks like pride is courtesy. 

This Ajax is half made of Hector’s blood : 

In love whereof, half Hector stays at home; 

Half heart, half hand, half Hector comes to seek 
This blended knight, half Trojan and half Greek. 


Scene V] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


93 

Achil. A maiden battle then? O, I perceive 
you. 


Re-enter Diomedes 

Agam. Here is Sir Diomed. Go, gentle knight, 
Stand by our Ajax: as you and Lord dEneas 
Consent upon the order of their fight, 90 

So be it; either to the uttermost, 

Or else a breath : the combatants being kin 
Half stints their strife before their strokes begin. 

\_Ajax and Hector enter the lists. 
Ulyss. They are opposed already. 

Agam. What Trojan is that same that looks so 
heavy ? 

Ulyss. The youngest son of Priam, a true knight, 
Not yet mature, yet matchless, firm of word. 

Speaking in deeds and deedless in his tongue, 

Not soon provoked nor being provoked soon calm’d; 

His heart and hand both open and both free; 100 

For what he has he gives, what thinks he shows; 

Yet gives he not till judgement guide his bounty. 

Nor dignifies an impair thought with breath; 

Manly as Hector, but more dangerous; 

For Hector in his blaze of wrath subscribes 
To tender objects, but he in heat of action 
Is more vindicative than jealous love : 

They call him Troilus, and on him erect 
A second hope, as fairly built as Hector. 

Thus says dEneas; one that knows the youth 110 

Even to his inches, and with private soul 
Did in great Ilion thus translate him to me. 

\_Alarum. Hector and Ajax fight. 


94 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act IV 


Again. They are in action. 

Nest. Now, Ajax, hold thine own ! 

Tro. Hector, thou sleep’st; Awake thee! 

Agam. His blows are well disposed : there, Ajax! 
Dio. You must no more. \_Trum , pets cease. 

AEne. Princes, enough, so please you. 

Ajax. I am not warm yet; let us fight again. 
Dio. As Hector pleases. 

Hect. Why, then will I no more : 

Thou art, great lord, my father’s sister’s son, 

A cousin-german to great Priam’s seed; 

The obligation of our blood forbids 
A gory emulation ’twixt us twain: 

Were thy commixtion Greek and Trojan so, 

That thou couldst say ‘ This hand is Grecian all. 
And this is Trojan; the sinews of this leg 
All Greek, and this all Troy; my mother’s blood 
Runs on the dexter cheek, and this sinister 
Bounds in my father’s;’ by Jove multipotent. 

Thou shouldst not bear from me a Greekish member 
Wherein my sword had not impressure made 
Of our rank feud: but the just gods gainsay 
That any drop thou borrow’dst from thy mother. 
My sacred aunt, should by my mortal sword 
Be drained ! Let me embrace thee, Ajax : 

By him that thunders, thou hast lusty arms; 

Hector would have them fall upon him thus: 
Cousin, all honour to thee ! 

Ajax. I thank thee, Hector: 

Thou art too gentle and too free a man: 

I came to kill thee, cousin, and bear hence 
A great addition earned in thy death. 


Scene V] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


95 


Hect. Not Neoptolemus so mirable, 

On whose bright crest Fame with her loud’st Oyes 
Cries ‘This is he/ could promise to himself 
A thought of added honour torn from Hector. 

Mne. There is expectance here from both the 
sides, 

What further you will do. 

Hect . We’ll answer it; 

The issue is embracement: Ajax, farewell. 

Ajax. If I might in entreaties find success, — 

As seld I have the chance — I would desire 
My famous cousin to our Grecian tents. 150 

Dio. ’Tis Agamemnon’s wish; and great Achilles 
Doth long to see unarm’d the valiant Hector. 

Hect. /Eneas, call my brother Troilus to me : 

And signify this loving interview 
To the expecters of our Trojan part; 

Desire them home. Give me thy hand, my cousin; 

I will go eat with thee, and see your knights. 

Ajax. Great Agamemnon comes to fneet us here. 
Hect. The worthiest of them tell me name by 
name; 

But for Achilles, my own searching eyes 160 

Shall find him by his large and portly size. 

Agam. Worthy of arms! as welcome as to one 
That would be rid of such an enemy; 

But that’s no welcome : understand more clear, 

What’s past and what’s to come is strew’d with 
husks 

And formless ruin of oblivion; 

But in this extant moment, faith and troth, 

Strain’d purely from all hollow bias-drawing, 


96 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act IV 


Bids thee, with most divine integrity, 

From heart of very heart, great Hector, welcome. 170 
Beet. I thank thee, most imperious Agamemnon. 
Agam. \_To Troilus] My well-famed lord of 
Troy, no less to you. 

Men. Let me confirm my princely brother’s 
greeting; 

You brace of warlike brothers, welcome hither. 

Hect. Who must we answer ? 

JEne. The noble Menelaus. 

Hect. O, you, my lord! by Mars his gauntlet, 
thanks! 

Mock not, that I affect the untraded oath; 

Your quondam wife swears still by Venus’ glove: 

She’s well, but bade me not commend her to you. 

Men. Name her not now, sir; she’s a deadly theme, iso 
Hect. O, pardon ; I offend. 

Nest. I have, thou gallant Trojan, seen thee oft, 
Labouring for destiny, make cruel way 
Through ranks of Greekish youth; and I have seen 
thee, 

As hot as Perseus, spur thy Phrygian steed. 

Despising many forfeits and subduements, 

When thou hast hung thy advanced sword i’ the air, 
Not letting it decline on the declined. 

That I have said to some my standers by 

‘Lo, Jupiter is yonder, dealing life !’ 190 

And I have seen thee pause and take thy breath, 

When that a ring of Greeks have hemm’d thee in, 

Like an Olympian wrestling : this have I seen ; 

But this thy countenance, still lock’d in steel, 

I never saw till now. I knew thy grandsire. 


Scene V] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


97 


And once fought with him : he was a soldier good; 
But, by great Mars the captain of us all. 

Never like thee. Let an old man embrace thee; 

And, worthy warrior, welcome to our tents. 

JEne. ’Tis the old Nestor. 200 

Hect. Let me embrace thee, good old chronicle, 
That hast so long walk’d hand in hand with time: 
Most reverend Nestor, I am glad to clasp thee. 

Nest. I would my arms could match thee in con¬ 
tention. 

As they contend with thee in courtesy. 

Hect. I would they could. 

Nest. Ha! 

By this white beard, I’d fight with thee to-morrow: 
Well, welcome, welcome ! — I have seen the time. 

Ulyss. I wonder now how yonder city stands, 210 
When we have here her base and pillar by us. 

Hect. I know your favour, Lord Ulysses, well. 

Ah, sir, there’s many a Greek and Trojan dead. 

Since first I saw yourself and Diomed 
In Ilion, on your Greekish embassy. 

Ulyss. Sir, I foretold you then what would ensue : 
My prophecy is but half his journey yet; 

For yonder walls, that pertly front your town, 

Yond towers, whose wanton tops do buss the clouds, 
Must kiss their own feet. 

Hect. I must not believe you: 220 

There they stand yet; and modestly I think, 

The fall of every Phrygian stone will cost 
A drop of Grecian blood : the end crowns all, 

And that old common arbitrator, Time, 

Will one day end it. 


98 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act IV 


ZJlyss. So to him we leave it. 

Most gentle and most valiant Hector, welcome: 

After the general, I beseech you next 
To feast with me and see me at my tent. 

Achil. I shall forestall thee, Lord Ulysses, thou! 
Now, Hector, I have fed mine eyes on thee; 230 

* I have with exact view perused thee, Hector, 

And quoted joint by joint. 


let me look on thee. 


Hect. Is this Achilles ? 

Achil. I am Achilles. 

Hect. Stand fair, I pray thee 
Achil. Behold thy fill. 

Hect. Nay, I have done already. 

Achil. Thou art too brief : I will the second time, 

As I would buy thee, view thee limb by limb. 

Hect. O, like a book of sport tliou’lt read me o’er; 
But there’s more in me than thou understand’st. 

Why dost thou so oppress me with thine eye ? 240 

Achil. Tell me, you heavens, in which part of his 
body 

Shall I destroy him? whether there, or there, or 
there ? 

That I may give the local wound a name, 

And make distinct the very breach whereout 
Hector’s great spirit flew : answer me, heavens ! 

Hect. It would discredit the blest gods, proud 
man, 

To answer such a question : stand again : 

Think’st thou to catch my life so pleasantly. 

As to prenominate in nice conjecture 
Where thou wilt hit me dead ? 

Achil. 


I tell thee, yea. 


250 


Scene V] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


99 


Hect. Wert thou an oracle to tell me so, 

I’d not believe thee. Henceforth guard thee well; 
For I’ll not kill thee there, nor there, nor there; 

But, by the forge that stithied Mars his helm, 

I’ll kill thee every where, yea, o’er and o’er. 

You wisest Grecians, pardon me this brag; 

His insolence draws folly from my lips; 

But I’ll endeavour deeds to match these words, 

Or may I never — 

Ajax. Do not chafe thee, cousin : 

And you, Achilles, let these threats alone 260 

Till accident or purpose bring you to’t: 

You may have every day enough of Hector, 

If you have stomach : the general state, I fear, 

Can scarce entreat you to be odd with him. 

Hect. I pray you, let us see you in the field : 

We have had pelting wars since you refused 
The Grecians’ cause. 

Achil. Dost thou entreat me, Hector ? 

To-morrow do I meet thee, fell as death; 

To-night all friends. 

Hect. Thy hand upon that match. 

Agam. First, all you peers of Greece, go to my 
tent; 270 

There in the full convive we : afterwards, 

As Hector’s leisure and your bounties shall 
Concur together, severally entreat him. 

Beat loud the tabourines, let the trumpets blow, 

That this great soldier may his welcome know. 

\_Exeunt all but Troilus and Ulysses. 
Tro. My Lord Ulysses, tell me, I beseech you, 

In what place of the field doth Calchas keep ? 


100 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act V 


Ulyss. At Menelaus’ tent, most princely Troilus : 
There Diomed doth feast with him to-night; 

Who neither looks upon the heaven nor earth, 280 
But gives all gaze and bent of amorous view 
On the fair Cressid. 

Tro. Shall I, sweet lord, be bound to you so much, 
After we part from Agamemnon’s tent, 

To bring me thither ? 

Ulyss. You shall command me, sir. 

As gentle tell me, of what honour was 

This Cressida in Troy ? Had she no lover there 

That wails her absence ? 

Tro. O, sir, to such as boasting show their scars, 

A mock is due. Will you walk on, my lord ? 290 

She was beloved, she loved ; she is, and doth : 

But still sweet love is food for fortune’s tooth. 

[ Exeunt . 


ACT V 

Scene I — The Grecian camp. Before Achilles’ tent 
Enter Achilles and Patroclus 
Achil. I’ll heat his blood with Greekish wine to¬ 
night, 

Which with my scimitar I’ll cool to-morrow. 
Patroclus, let us feast him to the height. 

Patr. Here comes Thersites. 

Enter Thersites 

Achil. How now, thou core of envy ! 

Thou crusty batch of nature, what’s the news ? 

Ther. Why, thou picture of what thou seemest, 



Scene I] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


101 


and idol of idiot-worshippers, here’s a letter for 
thee. 

Achil. From whence, fragment ? 

Ther. Why, thou full dish of fool, from Troy. 10 

Patr. Who keeps the tent now ? 

Ther. The surgeon’s box, or the patient’s wound.. 

Patr. Well said, adversity ! and what need these 
tricks ? 

Ther. Prithee, be silent, boy; I profit not by 
thy talk: thou art thought to be Achilles’ male 
varlet. 

Patr. Male varlet, you rogue ! what’s that ? 

Ther. Why, his masculine whore. Now, the 
rotten diseases of the south, the guts-griping, rup- 20 
tures, catarrhs, loads o’ gravel i’ the back, lethargies, 
cold palsies, raw eyes, dirt-rotten livers, wheezing 
lungs, bladders full of imposthume, sciaticas, lime¬ 
kilns i’ the palm, incurable bone-ache, and the 
rivelled fee-simple of the tetter, take and take again 
such preposterous discoveries! 

Patr. Why, thou damnable box of envy, thou, 
what mean’st thou to curse thus ? 

Ther. Do I curse thee ? 

Patr. Why, no, you ruinous butt; you whoreson 30 
indistinguishable cur, no. 

Ther. No! why art thou then exasperate, thou 
idle immaterial skein of sleave silk, thou green 
sarcenet flap for a sore eye, thou tassel of a prodi¬ 
gal’s purse, thou? Ah, how the poor world is 
pestered with such waterflies, diminutives of nature! 

Patr. Out, gall! 

Ther. Finch-egg! 


102 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act V 

Achil. My sweet Patroclus, I am thwarted quite 
From my great purpose in to-morrow’s battle. 

Here is a letter from Queen Hecuba, 

A token from her daughter, my fair love, 

Both taxing me and gaging me to keep 
An oath that I have sworn. I will not break it: 

Fall Greeks; fail fame; honour or go or stay; 

My major vow lies here, this I’ll obey. 

Come, come, Thersites, help to trim my tent: 

This night in banqueting must all be spent. 

Away, Patroclus ! [Exeunt Achilles and Patroclus. 

Ther. With too much blood and too little brain, 
these two may run mad; but, if with too much 
brain and too little blood they do, I’ll be a curer 
of madmen. Here’s Agamemnon, an honest fel¬ 
low enough and one that loves quails; but he has 
not so much brain as ear-wax: and the goodly 
transformation of Jupiter there, his brother, the 
bull, the primitive statue and oblique memorial 
of cuckolds; a thrifty shoeing-horn in a chain, 
hanging at his brother’s leg, — to what form 
but that he is, should wit larded with malice and 
malice forced with wit turn him to? To an ass, 
were nothing; he is both ass and ox: to an ox, 
were nothing; he is both ox and ass. To be a dog, 
a mule, a cat, a fitchew, a toad, a lizard, an owl, 
a puttock, or a herring without a roe, I would 
not care; but to be Menelaus! I would conspire 
against destiny. Ask me not what I would be, 
if I were not Thersites; for I care not to be the 
louse of a lazar, so I were not Menelaus. Hoy-day! 
spirits and fires! 


40 

50 

60 

70 


Scene I] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


103 


Enter Hector, Troilus, Ajax, Agamemnon, Ulysses, 
Nestor, Menelaus, and Diomedes, with lights 


Agam. 

We go wrong, we go wrong. 

Ajax. 

No, yonder ’tis; 

There, where we see the lights. 

Hect. 

I trouble you. 

Ajax. 

No, not a whit. 


Re-enter Achilles 

Ulyss. 

Here comes himself to guide you. 

Achil. 

Welcome, brave Hector; welcome, princes 

all. 


Agam. 

So now, fair Prince of Troy, I bid good 


night. 


Ajax commands the guard to tend on you. 

Hect. Thanks and good night to the Greeks’ 
general. 

Men. Good night, my lord. 

Hect. Good night, sweet Lord Menelaus. 

Ther. Sweet draught: sweet, quoth a’! sweet so 
sink, sweet sewer. 

Achil. Good night and welcome, both at once, to 
those 

That go or tarry. 

A gam. Good night. 

[Exeunt Agamemnon and Menelaus. 
Achil. Old Nestor tarries; and you too, Diomed, 
Keep Hector company an hour or two. 

Dio. I cannot, lord; I have important business, 
The tide whereof is now. Good night, great Hector. 
Hect. Give me your hand. 


104 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act V 


Ulyss. [ Aside to Troilus~\ Follow his torch; he 
goes to Calchas’ tent: 90 

I’ll keep you company. 

Tro. Sweet sir, you honour me. 

Hect. And so, good night. 

[Exit Diomedes; Ulysses and Troilus following. 

Achil. Come, come, enter my tent. 

[Exeunt Achilles , Hector , Ajax , and Nestor. 

Ther. That same Diomed’s a false-hearted 
rogue, a most unjust knave; I will no more trust 
him when he leers than I will a serpent when he 
hisses: he will spend his mouth and promise, 
like Brabbler the hound; but when he performs, 
astronomers foretell it; it is prodigious, there will 
come some change; the sun borrows of the moon 100 
when Diomed keeps his word. I will rather leave 
to see Heotor than not to dog him: they say 
he keeps a Trojan drab and uses the traitor Cal¬ 
chas’ tent: I’ll after. Nothing but lechery! all 
incontinent varlets! [Exit. 


Scene II — The same. Before Calchas ’ tent 
Enter Diomedes 

Dio. What, are you up here, ho ? speak. 

Cal. [Within] Who calls? 

Dio. Diomed. Calchas, I think. Where’s your 
daughter ? 

Cal. [Within] She comes to you. 

Enter Troilus and Ulysses, at a distance; after them, Thersites 
Ulyss. Stand where the torch may not discover us. 


Scene II] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


105 


Enter Cressida 

Tro. Cressid comes forth to him. 


Dio. 


How now, my charge ! 


Cres. Now, my sweet guardian! Hark, a word 


with you. 



Tro. Yea, so familiar ! 

Ulyss. She will sing any man at first sight. 

Ther. And any man may sing her, if he can take 10 
her cliff; she’s noted. 

Dio. Will you remember? 

Cres. Remember! yes. 

Dio. Nay, but do, then; 

And let your mind be coupled with your words. 

Tro. What should she remember ? 

Ulyss. List. 

Cres. Sweet honey Greek, tempt me no more to 


folly. 


Ther. Roguery! 
Dio. Nay, then, 


20 


Cres. I’ll tell you what, — 

Dio. Foh, foh! come, tell a pin: you are for¬ 
sworn. 

Cres. In faith, I cannot: what would you have 
me do ? 

Ther. A juggling trick, — to be secretly open. 

Dio. What did you swear you would bestow on 
me ? 

Cres. I prithee, do not hold me to mine oath; 

Bid me do any thing but that, sweet Greek. 

Dio. Good night. 

Tro. Hold, patience! 

Ulyss. How now, Trojan ! 


30 


106 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


[Act V 


Cres. Diomed, — 

Dio. No, no, good night: I’ll be your fool no 
more. 

Tro. Thy better must. 

Cres. Hark, one word in your ear. 

Tro. O plague and madness ! 

Ulyss. You are moved, prince; let us depart, I 
pray you, 

Lest your displeasure should enlarge itself 
To wrathful terms : this place is dangerous; 

The time right deadly; I beseech you, go. 

Tro. Behold, I pray you ! 

Ulyss. Nay, good my lord, go off : 40 

You flow to great distraction; come, my lord. 

Tro. I pray thee, stay. 

Ulyss. You have not patience; come. 

Tro. I pray you, stay; by hell and all hell’s tor¬ 
ments, 

I will not speak a word. 

Dio. And so, good night. 

Cres. Nay, but you part in anger. 

Tro. Doth that grieve thee ? 

O wither’d truth! 

Ulyss. Why, how now, lord ! 

Tro. By Jove, 

I will be patient. 

Cres. Guardian ! — why, Greek! 

Dio. Foh, foh ! adieu; you palter. 

Cres. In faith, I do not: come hither once again. 
Ulyss. You shake, my lord, at something: will 
you go ? 

You will break out. 


50 


Scene II] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


107 


Tro. She strokes his cheek! 

Ulyss. Come, come. 

Tro. Nay, stay; by Jove, I will not speak a 
word: 

There is between my will and all offences 
A guard of patience : stay a little while. 

Ther. How the devil luxury, with his fat rump 
and potato-finger, tickles these together! Fry, 
lechery, fry! 

Dio. But will you, then ? 

Cres. In faith, I will, la; never trust me else. 

Dio. Give me some token for the surety of it. 60 
Cres. I’ll fetch you one. \_Exit. 

Ulyss. You have sworn patience. 

Tro. Fear me not, sweet lord; 

I will not be myself, nor have cognition 
Of what I feel: I am all patience. 

Re-enter Cressida 

Tro. Now the pledge; now, now, now! 

Cres. Here, Diomed, keep this sleeve. 

Tro. O beauty ! where is thy faith ? 

Ulyss. My lord, — 

Tro. I will be patient; outwardly I will. 

Cres. You look upon that sleeve; behold it well. 

He loved me — O false wench ! — Give’t me again. 70 
Dio. Whose was’t ? 

Cres. It is no matter, now I have’t again. 

I will not meet with you to-morrow night: 

I prithee, Diomed, visit me no more. 

Ther. Now she sharpens : well said, whetstone! 
Dio. I shall have it. 


108 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act V 


Cres. What, this ? 

Dio. Ay, that. 

Cres. O, all you gods ! O pretty, pretty pledge ! 
Thy master now lies thinking in his bed 
Of thee and me, and sighs, and takes my glove, 

And gives memorial dainty kisses to it, 

As I kiss thee. Nay, do not snatch it from me; 

He that takes that doth take my heart withal. 

Dio. I had your heart before; this follows it. 
Tro. I did swear patience. 

Cres. You shall not have it, Diomed; faith, you 
shall not; 

I’ll give you something else. 

Dio. I will have this : whose was it ? 

Cres. It is no matter. 

Dio. Come, tell me whose it was. 

Cres. ’Twas one’s that loved me better than you 
will. 

But, now you have it, take it. 

Dio. Whose was it ? 

Cres. By all Diana’s waiting-women yond, 

And by herself, I will not tell you whose. 

Dio. To-morrow will I wear it on my helm, 

And grieve his spirit that dares not challenge it. 

Tro. Wert thou the devil, and worest it on thy 
horn, 

It should be challenged. 

Cres. Well, well, ’tis done, ’tis past; and yet it 
is not; 

I will not keep my word. 

Dio. Why then, farewell; 

Thou never shalt mock Diomed again. 


Scene II] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


109 


Cres. You shall not go : one cannot speak a word, 100 
But it straight starts you. 

Dio. I do not like this fooling. 

Ther. Nor I, by Pluto: but that that likes not 
you 

Pleases me best. 

Dio. What, shall I come ? the hour ? 

Cres. Ay, come : O Jove ! do come : I shall be 
plagued. 

Dio. Farewell till then. 

Cres. Good night: I prithee, come. 

[Exit Diomedes. 

Troilus, farewell! one eye yet looks on thee, 

But with my heart the other eye doth see. 

Ah, poor our sex! this fault in us I find. 

The error of our eye directs our mind: 

What error leads must err; O, then conclude no 

Minds sway’d by eyes are full of turpitude. [ Exit. 
Ther. A proof of strength she could not publish 
more, 

Unless she said ‘My mind is now turn’d whore.* 

Ulyss. All’s done, my lord. 

Tro. It is. 

Ulyss. Why stay we then ? 

Tro. To make a recordation to my soul 
Of every syllable that here was spoke. 

But if I tell how these two did co-act, 

Shall I not lie in publishing a truth ? 

Sith yet there is a credence in my heart, 

An esperance so obstinately strong, 120 

That doth invert the attest of eyes and ears; 

As if those organs had deceptions functions, 


110 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act V 


Created only to calumniate. 

Was Cressid here ? 

Ulyss. I cannot conjure, Trojan. 

Tro. She was not, sure. 

Ulyss. Most sure she was. 

Tro. Why, my negation hath no taste of madness. 
Ulyss. Nor mine, my lord : Cressid was here but 
now. 

Tro. Let it not be believed for womanhood! 

Think, we had mothers; do not give advantage 
To stubborn critics, apt without a theme 130 

For depravation, to square the general sex 
By Cressid’s rule : rather think this not Cressid. 

Ulyss. What hath she done, prince, that can soil 
our mothers ? 

Tro. Nothing at all, unless that this were she. 

Ther. Will a’ swagger himself out on’s own eyes ? 
Tro. This she ? no, this is Diomed’s Cressida : 

If beauty have a soul, this is not she; 

If souls guide vows, if vows be sanctimonies. 

If sanctimony be the gods’ delight. 

If there be rule in unity itself, 140 

This is not she. O madness of discourse. 

That cause sets up with and against itself! 

Bi-fold authority ! where reason can revolt 
Without perdition, and loss assume all reason 
Without revolt: this is, and is not, Cressid ! 

Within my soul there doth conduce a fight 
Of this strange nature, that a thing inseparate 
Divides more wider than the sky and earth; 

And yet the spacious breadth of this division 
Admits no orifex for a point as subtle 


150 


Scene II] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


111 


As Ariachne’s broken woof to enter. 

Instance, O instance ! strong as Pluto’s gates; 

Cressid is mine, tied with the bonds of heaven: 
Instance, O instance ! strong as heaven itself; 

The bonds of heaven are slipp’d, dissolved and 
loosed; 

And with another knot, five-finger-tied. 

The fractions of her faith, orts of her love. 

The fragments, scraps, the bits and greasy relics 
Of her o’er-eaten faith, are bound to Diomed. 

Ulyss. May worthy Troilus be half attach’d 160 
With that which here his passion doth express ? 

Tro. Ay, Greek; and that shall be divulged well 
In characters as red as Mars his heart 
Inflamed with Venus : never did young man fancy 
With so eternal and so fix’d a soul. 

Hark, Greek: as much as I do Cressid love, 

So much by weight hate I her Diomed: 

That sleeve is mine that he’ll bear on his helm: 

Were it a casque composed by Vulcan’s skill. 

My sword should bite it: not the dreadful spout 170 
Which shipmen do the hurricano call, 

Constringed in mass by the almighty sun. 

Shall dizzy with more clamour Neptune’s ear 
In his descent, than shall my prompted sword 
Falling on Diomed. 

Ther. He’ll tickle it for his concupy. 

Tro. O Cressid ! O false Cressid ! false, false, false! 
Let all untruths stand by thy stained name, 

And they’ll seem glorious. 

Ulyss. O, contain yourself; 

Your passion draws ears hither. 


180 


112 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act V 


Enter ASneas 

JEne. I have been seeking you this hour, my lord: 
Hector by this is arming him in Troy; 

Ajax your guard stays to conduct you home. 

Tro. Have with you, prince. My courteous lord, 
adieu. 

Farewell, revolted fair! and, Diomed, 

Stand fast, and wear a castle on thy head! 

Ulyss. I’ll bring you to the gates. 

Tro. Accept distracted thanks. 

[.Exeunt Troilus, JEneas, and Ulysses. 
Ther. Would I could meet that rogue Diomed! 

I would croak like a raven; I would bode, I would 190 
bode. Patroclus will give me any thing for the 
intelligence of this whore: the parrot will not 
do more for an almond than he for a commodious 
drab. Lechery, lechery! still wars and lechery! 
nothing else holds fashion. A burning devil take 
them! [Exit. 


Scene III — Troy. Before Priam’s palace 
Enter Hector and Andromache 
And. When was my lord so much ungently 
temper’d, 

To stop his ears against admonishment ? 

Unarm, unarm, and do not fight to-day. 

Hect. You train me to offend you; get you in : 
By all the everlasting gods, I’ll go! 

And. My dreams will, sure, prove ominous to the 
day. 

Hect. No more, I say. 


Scene III] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


113 


Enter Cassandra 

Cas. Where is my brother Hector ? 

And. Here, sister; arm’d, and bloody in intent. 
Consort with me in loud and dear petition; 

Pursue we him on knees; for I have dream’d 
Of bloody turbulence, and this whole night 
Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of slaughter. 
Cas. O, ’tis true. 

Hect. Ho ! bid my trumpet sound ! 

Cas. No notes of sally, for the heavens, sweet 
brother. 

Hect. Be gone, I say: the gods have heard me 
swear. 

Cas. The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows : 
They are polluted offerings, more abhorr’d 
Than spotted livers in the sacrifice. 

And. 0, be persuaded ! do not count it holy 
To hurt by being just: it is as lawful, 

For we would give much, to use violent thefts 
And rob in the behalf of charity. 

Cas. It is the purpose that makes strong the vow; 
But vows to every purpose must not hold; 

Unarm, sweet Hector. 

Hect. Hold you still, I say; 

Mine honour keeps the weather of my fate: 

Like every man holds dear; but the dear man 
Holds honour far more precious-dear than life. 

Enter Troilus 

How now, young man ! mean’st thou to fight to-day ? 
And. Cassandra, call my father to persuade. 

\_Exit Cassandra. 


114 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act V 


Hect. No, faith, young Troilus; doff thy harness, 
youth : 

I am to-day i’ the vein of chivalry: 

Let grow thy sinews till their knots be strong, 

And tempt not yet the brushes of the war. 

Unarm thee, go; and doubt thou not, brave boy. 

I’ll stand to-day for thee and me and Troy. 

Tro. Brother, you have a vice of mercy in you, 
Which better fits a lion than a man. 

Hect. What vice is that, good Troilus ? chide me 
for it. 

Tro. When many times the captive Grecian falls, 40 
Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword, 

You bid them rise and live. 

Hect. 0, ’tis fair play. 

Tro. Fool’s play, by heaven, Hector. 

Hect. How now! how now! 

Tro. For the love of all the gods, 

Let’s leave the hermit pity with our mother; 

And when we have our armours buckled on, 

The venom’d vengeance ride upon our swords, 

Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth! 

Hect. Fie, savage, fie ! 

Tro. Hector, then ’tis wars. 

Hect. Troilus, I would not have you fight to¬ 
day. 50 

Tro. Who should withhold me ? 

Not fate, obedience, nor the hand of Mars 
Beckoning with fiery truncheon my retire; 

Not Priamus and Hecuba on knees, 

Their eyes o’ergalled with recourse of tears; 

Nor you, my brother, with your true sword drawn, 


Scene III] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


115 


Opposed to hinder me, should stop my way. 

But by my ruin. 

Re-enter Cassandra, with Priam 

Cas. Lay hold upon him, Priam, hold him fast: 
He is thy crutch; now if thou lose thy stay, 60 

Thou on him leaning, and all Troy on thee, 

Fall all together. 

Pri. Come, Hector, come, go back: 

Thy wife hath dream’d; thy mother hath had 
visions; 

Cassandra doth foresee : and I myself 
Am like a prophet suddenly enrapt, 

To tell thee that this day is ominous: 

Therefore, come back. 

Hect. iEneas is afield; 

And I do stand engaged to many Greeks, 

Even in the faith of valour, to appear 
This morning to them. 

Pri. Ay, but thou shalt not go. 70 

Hect. I must not break my faith. 

You know me dutiful; therefore, dear sir, 

Let me not shame respect; but give me leave 
To take that course by your consent and voice. 

Which you do here forbid me, royal Priam. 

Cas. O Priam, yield not to him ! 

And. Do not, dear father. 

Hect. Andromache, I am offended with you: 

Upon the love you bear me, get you in. 

[Exit Andromache. 

Tro. This foolish, dreaming, superstitious girl 
Makes all these bodements. 


116 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act V 


Cas. O, farewell, dear Hector! so 

Look, how thou diest! look, how thy eye turns pale ! 
Look, how thy wounds do bleed at many vents! 

Hark, how Troy roars ! how Hecuba cries out! 

How poor Andromache shrills her dolours forth! 
Behold, distraction, frenzy and amazement, 

Like witless antics, one another meet, 

And all cry ‘Hector! Hector’s dead! O Hector!’ 

Tro. Away ! away ! 

Cas. Farewell: yet, soft! Hector, I take my 
leave: 

Thou dost thyself and all our Troy deceive. [Exit. 90 
Hect. You are amazed, my liege, at her exclaim : 

Go in and cheer the town: we’ll forth and fight, 

Do deeds worth praise and tell you them at night. 

Pri. Farewell: the gods with safety stand about 
thee! 

[Exeunt severally Priam and Hector. Alarum. 
Tro. They are at it, hark! Proud Diomed, be¬ 
lieve, 

I come to lose my arm, or win my sleeve. 

Enter Pandarus 

Pan. Do you hear, my lord? do you hear? 

Tro. What now ? 

Pan. Here’s a letter come from yon poor girl. 

Tro. Let me read. 100 

Pan. A whoreson tisick, a whoreson rascally 
tisick so troubles me, and the foolish fortune of 
this girl; and what one thing, what another, that 
I shall leave you one o’ these days: and I have 
a rheum in mine eyes too, and such an ache in my 


Scene IV] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


117 


bones that, unless a man were cursed, I cannot 
tell what to think on’t. What says she there ? 

Tro. Words, words, mere words, no matter from 
the heart; 

The effect doth operate another way. 

[Tearing the letter. 

Go, wind, to wind, there turn and change together, no 
My love with words and errors still she feeds, 

But edifies another with her deeds. [Exeunt severally. 

Scene IV — The field between Troy and the Grecian camp. 

Alarums. Excursions. Enter Thersites 

Ther. Now they are clapper-clawing one another; 

I’ll go look on. That dissembling abominable 
varlet, Diomed, has got that same scurvy doting 
foolish young knave’s sleeve of Troy there in 
his helm: I would fain see them meet; that that 
same young Trojan ass, that loves the whore 
there, might send that Greekish whoremasterly 
villain, with the sleeve, back to the dissembling 
luxurious drab, of a sleeveless errand. O’ the 
other side, the policy of those crafty swearing 10 
rascals, that stale old mouse-eaten dry cheese, 
Nestor, and that same dog-fox, Ulysses, is not 
proved worth a blackberry. They set me up in 
policy that mongrel cur, Ajax, against that dog 
of as bad a kind, Achilles: and now is the cur 
Ajax prouder than the cur Achilles, and will not 
arm to-day; whereupon the Grecians begin to 
proclaim barbarism, and policy grows into an ill 
opinion. 


118 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


[Act V 


Enter Diomedes and Troilus 

Soft! here comes sleeve, and t’other. 20 

Tro. Fly not, for shouldst thou take the river 
Styx, 

I would swim after. 

Dio. Thou dost miscall retire : 

I do not fly; but advantageous care 
Withdrew me from the odds of multitude : 

Have at thee! 

Ther. Hold thy whore, Grecian! Now for thy 
whore, Trojan! Now the sleeve, now the sleeve! 

[.Exeunt Troilus and Diomedes , fighting. 
Enter Hector 

Hect. What art thou, Greek ? art thou for 
Hector’s match ? 

Art thou of blood and honour ? 

Ther. No, no; I am a rascal; a scurvy railing 30 
knave; a very filthy rogue. 

Hect. I do believe thee. Live. \_Exit. 

Ther. God-a-mercy, that thou wilt believe me; 
but a plague break thy neck for frighting me! 
What’s become of the wenching rogues? I think 
they have swallowed one another: I would laugh 
at that miracle: yet in a sort lechery eats itself. 

I’ll teach them. \_Exit. 

Scene V — Another part of the field 
Enter Diomedes and Servant 

Dio. Go, go, my servant, take thou Troilus’ 
horse; 

Present the fair steed to my lady Cressid: 


Scene V] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


119 


Fellow, commend my service to her beauty; 

Tell her I have chastised the amorous Trojan, 

And am her knight by proof. 

Ser. I go, my lord. [Exit. 

Enter Agamemnon 

Agam. Renew, renew ! The fierce Polydamas 
Hath beat down Menon : bastard Margarelon 
Hath Doreus prisoner, 

And stands colossus-wise, waving his beam, 

Upon the pashed corses of the kings 
Epistrophus and Cedius : Polyxenes is slain ; 
Amphimachus and Thoas deadly hurt; 

Patroclus ta’en or slain; and Palamedes 
Sore hurt and bruised : the dreadful Sagittary 
Appals our numbers : haste we, Diomed, 

To reinforcement, or we perish all. 

Enter Nestor 

Nest. Go, bear Patroclus’ body to Achilles, 

And bid the snail-paced Ajax arm for shame. 

There is a thousand Hectors in the field: 

Now here he fights on Galathe his horse. 

And there lacks work; anon he’s there afoot, 

And there they fly or die, like scaled sculls 
Before the belching whale; then is he yonder. 

And there the strawy Greeks, ripe for his edge, 

Fall down before him, like the mower’s swath : 

Here, there and every where he leaves and takes, 
Dexterity so obeying appetite 
That what he will he does, and does so much 
That proof is call’d impossibility. 


120 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act V 


Enter Ulysses 

Ulyss. O, courage, courage, princes ! great Achil¬ 
les 

Is arming, weeping, cursing, vowing vengeance: 
Patroclus’ wounds have roused his drowsy blood, 
Together with his mangled Myrmidons, 

That noseless, handless, hack’d and chipp’d, come 
to him, 

Crying on Hector. Ajax hath lost a friend, 

And foams at mouth, and he is arm’d, and at it, 
Roaring for Troilus ; who hath done to-day 
Mad and fantastic execution. 

Engaging and redeeming of himself. 

With such a careless force and forceless care. 

As if that luck, in very spite of cunning, 

Bade him win all. 

Enter Ajax 

Ajax. Troilus ! thou coward Troilus ! [Exit. 
Dio. Ay, there, there. 

Nest. So, so, we draw together. 

Enter Achilles 

Achil. Where is this Hector ? 

Come, come, thou boy-queller, show thy face; 
Know what it is to meet Achilles angry: 

Hector! where’s Hector? I will none but Hector. 

[Exeunt. 

Scene VI — Another part of the field 
Enter Ajax 

Ajax. Troilus, thou coward Troilus, show thy 
head! 


Scene VI] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


121 


Enter Diomedes 

Dio. Troilus, I say ! where’s Troilus ? 

Ajax. What wouldst thou ? 

Dio. I would correct him. 

Ajax. Were I the general, thou shouldst have my 
office 

Ere that correction. Troilus, I say ! what, Troilus ! 


Enter Troilus 

Tro. O traitor Diomed! Turn thy false face, 
thou traitor, 

And pay thy life thou owest me for my horse. 

Dio. Ha, art thou there ? 

Ajax. I’ll fight with him alone : stand, Diomed. 
Dio. He is my prize; I will not look upon. 

Tro. Come both, you cogging Greeks; have at 
you both ! [ Exeunt fighting. 

Enter Hector 

Hect. Yea, Troilus ? O, well fought, my young¬ 
est brother! 

Enter Achilles 

Achil. Now do I see thee; ha! have at thee, 
Hector! 

Hect. Pause, if thou wilt. 

Achil. I do disdain thy courtesy, proud Trojan: 
Be happy that my arms are out of use: 

My rest and negligence befriends thee now, 

But thou anon shalt hear of me again; 

Till when, go seek thy fortune. [Exit. 

Hect. Fare thee well: 


122 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act V 


I would have been much more a fresher man, 20 

Had I expected thee. 

Re-enter Troilus 

How now, my brother! 

Tro. Ajax hath ta’en iEneas : shall it be? 

No, by the flame of yonder glorious heaven, 

He shall not carry him; I’ll be ta’en too. 

Or bring him off. Fate, hear me what I say ! 

I reck not though I end my life to-day. [Exit. 

Enter one in sumptuous armour 

Hect. Stand, stand, thou Greek; thou art a 
goodly mark. 

No ? wilt thou not ? I like thy armour well: 

I’ll frush it, and unlock the rivets all, 

But I’ll be master of it. Wilt thou not, beast, abide ? 30 
Why then, fly on, I’ll hunt thee for thy hide. 

[Exeunt. 

Scene VII — Another part of the field 
Enter Achilles, with Myrmidons 

Achil. Come here about me, you my Myrmidons; 
Mark what I say. Attend me where I wheel: 

Strike not a stroke, but keep yourselves in breath: 
And when I have the bloody Hector found, 

Empale him with your weapons round about,; 

In fellest manner execute your aims. 

Follow me, sirs, and my proceedings eye : 

It is decreed Hector the great must die. [Exeunt. 

Enter Menelaus and Paris, fighting: then Thersites 

Ther. The cuckold and the cuckold-maker are at 
it. Now, bull! now, dog! ’loo, Paris, ’loo! now 10 


Scene VIII] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


123 


my double-henned sparrow! ’loo, Paris, ’loo ! The 
bull has the game: ware horns, ho ! 

[.Exeunt Paris and Menelaus. 

Enter Margarelon 
Mar. Turn, slave, and fight. 

Ther. What art thou ? 

Mar. A bastard son of Priam’s. 

Ther. I am a bastard too; I love bastards: 
I am a bastard begot, bastard instructed, bastard 
in mind, bastard in valour, in every thing illegiti¬ 
mate. One bear will not bite another, and where¬ 
fore should one bastard? Take heed, the quarrel’s 
most ominous to us: if the son of a whore fight for 
a whore, he tempts judgement: farewell, bastard. 

[Exit. 

Mar. The devil take thee, coward ! [Exit. 

Scene VIII — Another part of the field 
Enter Hector 

Hect. Most putrefied core, so fair without, 

Thy goodly armour thus hath cost thy life. 

Now is my day’s work done; I’ll take good breath : 
Rest, sword; thou hast thy fill of blood and death. 
[Puts off his helmet and hangs his shield behind him. 

Enter Achilles and Myrmidons 

Achil. Look, Hector, how the sun begins to set; 
How ugly night comes breathing at his heels: 

Even with the vail and darking of the sun, 

To close the day up, Hector’s life is done. 

Hect. I am unarm’d; forego this vantage, Greek. 


20 


124 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act V 


Achil. Strike, fellows, strike; this is the man I 
seek. [Hector falls. 10 

So, Ilion, fall thou next! now, Troy, sink down ! 

Here lies thy heart, thy sinews, and thy bone. 

On, Myrmidons; and cry you all amain, 

‘Achilles hath the mighty Hector slain.’ 

[A retreat sounded. 

Hark! a retire upon our Grecian part. 

Myr. The Trojan trumpets sound the like, my 
lord. 

Achil. The dragon wing of night o’erspreads the 
earth, 

And stickler-like the armies separates. 

My half-supp’d sword that frankly would have fed, 
Pleased with this dainty bait, thus goes to bed. 20 

[Sheathes his sword. 
Come, tie his body to my horse’s tail; 

Along the field I will the Trojan trail. 

[Exeunt. A retreat sounded. 

Scene IX — Another 'part of the field 

Enter Agamemnon, Ajax, Menelaus, Nestor, Diomedes, 
and the rest, marching. Shouts within 

Agam. Hark ! hark! what shout is that! 

Nest. Peace, drums! 

[Within] ‘Achilles! Achilles! Hector’s slain! 
Achilles! ’ 

Dio. The bruit is, Hector’s slain, and by Achilles. 
Ajax. If it be so, yet bragless let it be; 

Great Hector was a man as good as he. 

Agam. March patiently along : let one be sent 
To pray Achilles see us at our tent. 


125 


Scene X] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 

If in his death the gods have us befriended, 

Great Troy is ours, and our sharp wars are ended. 

\JExeunt , marching. 


Scene X — Another part of the field 
Enter ACneas, Paris,* Antenor, and Deiphobus 

Mne. Stand, ho ! yet are we masters of the field : 
Never go home; here starve we out the night. 

Enter Troilus 
Tro. Hector is slain. 

All. Hector! The gods forbid! 

Tro. He’s dead; and at the murderer’s horse’s 
tail 

In beastly sort dragg’d through the shameful field. 
Frown on, you heavens, effect your rage with speed! 
Sit, gods, upon your thrones, and smile at Troy! 

I say, at once let your brief plagues be mercy, 

And linger not our sure destructions on ! 

JEne. My lord, you do discomfort all the host. 10 
Tro. You understand me not that tell me so: 

I do not speak of flight, of fear, of death. 

But dare all imminence that gods and men 
Address their dangers in. Hector is gone : 

Who shall tell Priam so, or Hecuba ? 

Let him that will a screech-owl aye be call’d, 

Go in to Troy, and say there ‘Hector’s dead:’ 

There is a word will Priam turn to stone, 

Make wells and Niobes of the maids and wives, 

Cold statues of the youth, and, in a word. 

Scare Troy out of itself. But march away : 


20 


126 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA [Act V 


Hector is dead; there is no more to say. 

Stay yet. You vile abominable tents, 

Thus proudly pight upon our Phrygian plains, 

Let Titan rise as early as he dare, 

I’ll through and through you! and, thou great¬ 
sized coward, 

No space of earth shall sunder our two hates : 

I’ll haunt thee like a wicked conscience still, 

That mouldeth goblins swift as frenzy’s thoughts. 
Strike a free march to Troy! with comfort go: 
Hope of revenge shall hide our inward woe. 

[.Exeunt Mneas and Trojans. 

As Troilus is going out, enter, from the other side, 
Pandarus 

Pan. But hear you, hear you! 

Tro. Hence, broker-lackey! ignomy and shame 
Pursue thy life, and live aye with thy name ! [Exit. 

Pan. A goodly medicine for my aching bones! 
O world! world! world! thus is the poor agent 
despised! O traitors and bawds, how earnestly 
are you set a-work, and how ill requited! why 
should our endeavour be so loved and the per¬ 
formance so loathed ? what verse for it ? what 
instance for it ? Let me see : 

Full merrily the humble-bee doth sing, 

Till he hath lost his honey and his sting; 

And being once subdued in armed tail, 

Sweet honey and sweet notes together fail. 

Good traders in the flesh, set this in your painted 
cloths: 


Scene X] TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


127 


As many as be here of Pandar’s hall, 

Your eyes, half out, weep out at Pandar’s fall; 

Or if you cannot weep, yet give some groans, 
Though not for me, yet for your aching bones. 
Brethren and sisters of the hold-door trade, 

Some two months hence my will shall here be made : 
It should be now, but that my fear is this, 

Some galled goose of Winchester would hiss: 

Till then I’ll sweat and seek about for eases, 

And at that time bequeath you my diseases. [Exit. 


. . 

. 








SUMMARIES AND NOTES 


PROLOGUE 

I 

Because of the style of the Prologue, some scholars doubt 
that it is the work of Shakespeare and attribute it to Chap¬ 
man or some other dramatist, a view not generally accepted. 
The Prologue does not appear in the Quarto. 

2. orgulous. This word appears many times in Caxton’s 
Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye. In the Third Book of this 
work, it appears four times and is used in each case with the 
word proud. The spellings of the word vary : “the orguyllous 
and proud”; “hardy orguyllous and proude”; “the orguyl¬ 
lous and prowde peple”; and “by our orguyell and pryde.” 

3. port of Athens, “the Kings and the princes of all the 
provynces of grece assemblid them to gyder at the porte of 
athens for to go to troye” (Caxton). 

5. sixty and nine. “The some of Kynges and dukes that 
were comen thedar were sixty and nyne . . . assemblyd at 
the porte of Athens” (Caxton). 

15. six-gated city. Troy, according to legend, had six 
gates in its walls. In speaking of them Caxton says, “In this 
Cyte were sixe pryncipall gates of whome that one was named 
Dardane. the second tymbria. the thirde helyas. the fourthe 
chetas. the fifthe troyenne and the sixthe antenorides.” 

23. prologue arm’d. The actor who recited the prologue 
was simply known by that name. He usually was dressed in 
a long black cloak, but in this play he was appropriately 
dressed in a suit of armor. In Jonson’s Poetaster (1601), 
the Prologue was dressed in similar fashion, and to him this 
Prologue refers. 

30. Like, or find fault. This expression is typical of Shake¬ 
speare’s attitude toward his work. The titles of the comedies 
As You Like It and Twelfth Night or What You Will convey 
the same idea. 


129 


130 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


ACT I —SCENE 1 

It is the eighth year of the siege of Troy. Our first glimpse 
of young Troilus shows him madly in love with the wanton 
Cressida and chafing under the yoke of war which restrains 
him from wooing her. He is desirous of having Pandarus 
intercede for him with Cressida, but Pandarus is “as tetchy 
to be woo’d to woo,” as Cressida is “stubborn-chaste against 
all suit.” 

The division into acts and scenes, which is found in neither 
Folio nor Quarto except for the heading Actus Primus: 
Sccena Prima in the Folio, was first made by Rowe (ed. 1709 ). 
In fact the reader must constantly remember that many of 
the divisions in Shakespeare’s plays were first made by Rowe 
who had in mind an eighteenth-century localized stage. The 
Elizabethan plays were given as continuously as possible with 
brief pauses where necessary, but with no such fixed divisions 
and shifts of scenes as Rowe made. 

39. a storm. Rowe made this emendation. The reading 
of the Folio is “a-scorn,” that of the Quarto, “a scorn.” 

49. Cassandra's wit. “Cassandra was of fayr stature and 
clere. Roundmouthed, wyse, shyning eyen She lovyd vir- 
ginyte. And knewe moche of thynges to come by astronomye 
and other Sciences” (Caxton). 

70. mends, “Make the best of a bad bargain,” a pro¬ 
verbial expression of the time. It is on this proverb that 
Pandarus is playing. Shakespeare, like Chaucer, represents 
Pandarus as being fond of proverbs and saws. 

80. as fair on Friday. Cressida is as attractive on a week 
day when she is dressed in plain clothes as Helen is on Sunday 
when she is dressed in her finery. This is a curious an¬ 
achronism; the days of the week were not named at the time 
of the Greeks when the action is supposed to have taken 
place. 

85. to stay behind her father. Cressida’s father, Calchas, 
according to Caxton, “a great learned bishop of Troy,” had 
been sent by Priam to consult the oracle of Delphi concerning 
the outcome of the war threatened by Agamemnon. When 
Apollo told Calchas that the Greeks were to be victorious by 
agreement of the gods, and urged him to desert to their army, 
he took the advice, leaving Cressida in Troy. 

103. Daphne's love. Troilus asks Apollo’s aid in the name 
of Daphne, a water nymph, whom Apollo had at one time 


SUMMARIES AND NOTES 


131 


loved. Daphne had resisted the sun-god and had been changed 
into a laurel tree by her father, a river-god. 

106. Ilium. This refers to Priam’s palace and not to the 
city. “In the most apparent place of the cyte upon a roche 
the Kinge Pryant dide do make hys ryehe palays that was 
named Ylyion” (Caxton). 

113. &neas. Shakespeare follows the character of .Eneas 
as drawn by Caxton: “Eneas had a grete body discrete 
mervayllously in his werkis will bespoken and attempryd in 
his wordes. Full of good counceyll and of science conneyng 
He had his visage joyouse and the eyen clere and graye. And 
was the richest man of troye after the Kyng pryant in townes 
and castellys.” 

SCENE 2 

From Cressida’s man, Alexander, we learn the gossip that 
Hector is angry at the fall he received in an encounter with 
Ajax. Pandarus, interceding with Cressida, declares Troilus 
a better man than Hector, and more beloved by Helen than 
Paris. Cressida left alone confesses that she has been “stub¬ 
born-chaste” because “men prize the things ungained.” 

1. Hecuba. “The quene hecuba was a rude woman and 
seemed better a man than a woman. She was a noble woman 
passinge sage debonayre And honeste and lovying the werkes 
of Charyte” (Caxton). 

6. Andromache. “Andrometha the wyfe of Hector was a 
passing fayr woman and whyte and that had fayr eyen and 
fayr heer. She was amonge alle other women ryght honeste 
and attempyryd in her werkes” (Caxton). 

23. humours. In Shakespeare’s time, it was commonly 
believed that the four liquids or humours of the body were: 
blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. The preponder¬ 
ance of any of these humours supposedly determined a man’s 
temperament and any irregularity in their proportion to one 
another led to disease. 

30. Briareus, the fabulous giant who was supposed to have 
a hundred hands. 

31. Argus, the mythical monster with a hundred eyes 
which in turn slept and watched. 

175-176. his sons. Priam, according to various accounts, 
had from eight to fifty sons, both legitimate and illegiti¬ 
mate. Some authorities state that Priam’s daughters are in¬ 
cluded in the total number listed as sons. 


132 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


205. Antenor. “Antenor was long and lene And spakce 
moche But he was discrete and of grete Industrye And whom 
the Kynge Pryant loved gretly And gladly playd amonge 
his felawship And was a ryght wyse man” (Caxton). 

shrewd. The reading of both Q and F is shrow’d. 

211-213. give you the nod . . . the rich shall have more, 
a pun based on the word nod, meaning a simpleton, and the 
Biblical sentence, “To him that hath shall be given.” 

214. Hector. “The fyrste of the Sones was named Hector 
the moste worthy & beste Knyght of the world” (Caxton). 

228. Paris. “The second Sone was named Parys and to 
surname Alixandre the whiche was the fayrest Knyght of the 
world, and the beste shoter and drawer of a bowe” (Caxton). 

237. Helenus. “The fourthe was named Helenus a man 
of grete scyence And knewe all the Artes lyberall” (Caxton). 

246. Deiphobus. “ The thyrde was called deyphebus ryght 
hardy and discrite” (Caxton). 

247. Troilus. “The fifth & the laste was callid Troylus 
that - was one of the beste Knyghtes & aspre that was in his 
tyme” (Caxton). 

267. Achilles. “Achilles was of right grete beautte blonke 
heeris & cryspe gray eyen and grete of Amyable sighte, large 
brestes & brode sholdres, grete Armes, his raynes hyghe ynowh 
an huygh man of grete stature and had no pareyll ne like to 
hym amonge alle the grekes desiryng to fighte, large in yestes 
And outerageous in dispense” (Caxton). 

SCENE 3 

In this famous debating scene, the Greek leaders argue in 
long philosophic discourses over the causes of their failures. 
Ulysses deplores the lack of unity through “neglection of 
degree.” He and Nestor scheme to send Ajax to answer the 
challenge of Hector, in the hope that “Ajax employ’d plucks 
[will pluck] down Achilles’ plumes,” because the latter has 
become boastful and indolent. 

38. Boreas, the north wind. 

39. Thetis, a sea-goddess and mother of Achilles, in all 
probability confused by Shakespeare with Tethys, the wife 
of Oceanus, god of the ocean, whose name was a common 
synonym for the sea. 

42. Perseus’ horse. When Perseus went to rescue An¬ 
dromeda from the sea monster, he rode Pegasus, a horse 


SUMMARIES AND NOTES 


133 


which sprang from the blood of Medusa. Pegasus was 
actually the property of Bellerophon. 

54. Retorts. Both Q and F read Retires. 

58. Ulysses. “Ulixes was a moste fayr man among all the 
grekes But he was deceyvable. And subtill. And sayd 
thynges Joyously. He was a right grete lyar And was so 
well bespoken that he had none felawe ne like to hym” 
(Caxton). 

75-137. The aristocratic idea of government, which 
Ulysses expresses, had its origin in Plato’s Republic and was 
almost universal during the Renaissance. (J. H. Hanford, 
Studies in Philology, 13 , 100 - 109 .) 

92. aspects. The position of a planet with reference to 
other planets is known as its aspect. Astrologists foretell 
the future by studying the aspects of the stars and planets. 

129. general’s disdain’d. Shakespeare had sufficient 
knowledge of psychology to know that when a man loses his 
respect for a superior, his own inferiors begin to lose their 
respect for him. 

160. Typhon, the giant with a hundred heads who attempted 
to overthrow Jupiter, but was defeated and imprisoned under 
Mount Etna. 

168. Vulcan and his wife. Vulcan, who was one of the 
most ugly of the gods, had for his wife the beautiful Venus, 
the goddess of love. 

174. gorget. Shakespeare portrays his characters as being 
dressed in the armor and clothing of his own Elizabethan 
period. The ancient Greeks used very little armor; so the 
reference to the gorget, a yoke-like defense for the throat 
and chest, is an anachronism. 

205. bed-work, the theory of war or the planning of mili¬ 
tary measures in contrast with the practical side of carrying 
out or putting the theory into practice. 

215. ’fore our tent. When this play was presented in the 
Globe, dEneas entered the fore-stage from the side and ap¬ 
peared in front of the rear-stage which in this scene represented 
a tent. 

230. youthful Phoebus. The sun was commonly referred 
to as Phoebus in poetry and plays. In the morning, the sun 
was considered young and therefore the morning looked 
coldly on him, as it did not yet know his power and heat. 

262. long-continued truce. Until modern times, truces 
played a great part as neither side could continue steady 


134 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


warfare. Caxton refers to the many truces during the Trojan 
War, and Shakespeare has incorporated them into his play. 

272. to him this challenge. This challenge savors of the 
medieval knights rather than of the ancient Greeks who as a 
rule thought little or nothing of their women. 

316. seeded pride . . . must he cropp’d. When a plant 
or weed reaches maturity, its seed pods burst, and the seeds 
are cast to the four winds to scatter and grow. Achilles’ pride 
is similar; it must be cropp’d before it can cast its seeds 
among the other Greek commanders. 

378. great Myrmidon, Achilles whose Thessalian followers 
were called Myrmidons. 

ACT II —SCENE 1 

We are introduced to the scurrilous clown, Thersites, who 
has been sent by Ajax to learn of Hector’s proclamation. He 
successively rails at both Ajax and Achilles, and vituperatively 
belittles the wit of the beefy pair. 

14. mongrel. The father of Ajax, according to Caxton, 
was Telamon, a Greek, who had carried off Hesione, a sister 
of Priam, who became the mother of Ajax. He was, there¬ 
fore, half Greek and half Trojan. 

37. Cerberus, the three-headed dog which guarded the 
gates of Hades. 

Proserpina, wife of Pluto and queen of Hades. 

SCENE 2 

The Greeks promise to raise the siege if Helen is returned, 
and a war indemnity is paid to them. The Trojans reject 
the offer. In a long dialogue, we learn that although Hector 
has issued the challenge, he prefers peace and wishes Helen 
to be returned. Paris and Troilus, however, are convinced 
that peace would not be worth the loss of glory and honor 
involved. The entrance of the raving Cassandra presages the 
ultimate defeat of the Trojans. 

77. old aunt. Hesione, a sister of King Priam, was carried 
off to Greece by Hercules who had rescued her from great 
danger and had been refused his promised reward. He gave 
her to his friend. Telamon. Priam, angered by this, pro¬ 
posed an expedition against the Greeks to recover her. Paris, 
who had been promised the fairest wife in Greece by Venus, 
offered to lead the expedition which would either recover 



SUMMARIES AND NOTES 


135 


Hesione or else bring back a Greek queen as a captive to 
atone for the ravishment of Priam’s sister. The offer of 
Paris was accepted; he went to Greece where he took ad¬ 
vantage of the hospitality of Menelaus to carry off his wife, 
Helen. The result was the Trojan War. (See note, ii. 1 . 14.) 

82. launch’d above a thousand ships. Shakespeare evi¬ 
dently based this line on those in Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, 
“Was this the face that launch’d a thousand ships, And burnt 
the topless towers of Ilium’’ (Sc. xiv. 83). 

101. Cry, Trojans, cry! Cassandra, according to Caxton, 
foretold evil both before and after the expedition of Paris. 

110. firebrand brother. Before the birth of Paris, his 
mother, Hecuba, dreamed that she would give birth to a 
firebrand which would destroy Troy. Paris was exposed on 
a mountain to die, but a shepherd found and adopted him. 

166. Aristotle, a Greek philosopher (348 to 322 b.c.), 
and a tutor of Alexander the Great, of Macedonia. In Aris¬ 
totle’s Nicomachean Ethics , there is a statement that young 
men are not fit to study 'political philosophy. Shakespeare 
makes Aristotle say that they are unfit to hear moral philos¬ 
ophy. Followers of the Baconian theory, who believe that the 
plays now credited to Shakespeare were the work of Francis 
Bacon (1561-1626), have placed great importance on this 
substitution of the word moral for the word political. They 
declare that Bacon made the same mistake in his Advance¬ 
ment of Learning. Sir Sidney Lee has shown, however, that 
this interpretation of Aristotle’s words was usual during the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 


SCENE 3 

The jester, Thersites, rails again at Achilles (who has “in¬ 
veighed” the clown from Ajax) and calls all the Greek leaders 
“fools.” Achilles is appointed to meet Hector but sulks in 
his tent, and refuses. Agamemnon believes Ajax should per¬ 
suade Achilles to fight, but Ulysses and Nestor see to it that 
Ajax is appointed in his stead. 

27. slipped out. A slip was a counterfeit coin made of 
brass and covered with silver. 

43. cheese. It was a common belief that eating cheese 
aided one’s digestion. 

111. elephant. The Elizabethans, to whom the elephant 


136 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


was a myth or at least an unknown animal of the far East, 
believed that the elephant had no joints. 

185. death-tokens. Certain spots which appeared on 
those suffering from the plague were supposed to be signs of 
approaching death. The great London plagues of 1593 and 
1603 caused thousands of deaths and kept the people in con¬ 
stant fear. 

204. Cancer. The sun, “great Hyperion,” enters the sign 
of Cancer, the Crab, in the zodiac, on June 21, at the season 
of the summer solstice. 

231. A ’ would have ten shares. The phrase “ten shares” 
is thought by some critics to refer to the ten shares of stock 
in the Globe Theatre of which Shakespeare held one. As Will 
Kemp, the comedian, was dissatisfied with his share of the 
stock, Shakespeare may be comparing Ajax to Kemp. 

258. Milo. This famous athlete of Crotona won renown 
by carrying a bull on his shoulders through the stadium of 
Olympia. The incident is described in Cicero’s De Senectute. 
This is another anachronism, as Milo lived in the sixth century 
B.c., long after the Trojan War. 

ACT III —SCENE 1 

Composed principally of small talk and repartee, this scene 
reveals Helen, like Cressida, another practiced coquette. 
Pandarus comes to ask Helen to make excuse to King Priam 
for Troilus who is supping with Cressida. 

16. Grace. In England a duke or an archbishop by the 
rules of etiquette is addressed as “Your Grace.” 

SCENE 2 

Pandarus, as he has promised, brings Troilus and Cressida 
together. In this, their first love scene, we see how ably the 
clever Cressida has brought Troilus under her spell. They 
profess undying love for each other. Pandarus with charac¬ 
teristic innuendo leaves them together for the night. 

10. Stygian banks , banks of the river Styx. 

11. Charon, the ferryman who rowed souls across the river 
Styx to Hades. 

17. here V the orchard. As stage settings in Shakespeare’s 
day were limited, the playwright included in his lines refer¬ 
ences to the setting of the scene. This expression is merely 


SUMMARIES AND NOTES 137 

a hint to the audience that the place is an orchard, i.e. a 
garden. 

48 . draw this curtain. Pictures, until a score of years ago, 
were covered with a curtain to protect them from dirt and 
light. In this case, the expression simply means “ remove your 
veil.” 

51 . rub on, and kiss the mistress, a pun based on the game 
of bowling in which the jack was sometimes called mistress. 
The expression means, “overcome all obstacles and reach the 
goal.” 

52 . fee-farm, a grant of land in perpetuity for which a 
small rent or fee was collected. 

139 . Cunning. Greg and Alexander believe that the 
original reading Comming of both Q and F should be retained. 

216 - 217 . press it to death. During the Middle Ages, cer¬ 
tain criminals who refused to plead guilty were pressed to 
death. The criminal was staked out on the floor, a heavy plate 
was placed on his chest, and heavy stones were placed on the 
plate until the man either confessed or died. There is a descrip¬ 
tion of a torture chamber and of a man being pressed to death 
in Victor Hugo’s novel. The Laughing Man. 


SCENE 3 

Calchas (note i. 1. 83), who has “incurred a traitor’s 
name,” asks the Greeks to pay him for his services by agreeing 
to exchange Cressida for a Trojan captive, Antenor. When 
the discussion ends, the Greek leaders purposely snub Achilles, 
and Ulysses delivers to him a sermon on the diminishing of 
fame by'the passage of time. Achilles, we learn, is in love 
with Polyxena, Priam’s daughter. The scene ends with the 
sending of an invitation to Hector to come unarmed to 
Achilles’ tent. 

4 . “ Through the sight I bear in things to love.” This line 
has caused much trouble. Alexander believes the line should 
read things to come referring to Calchas’ gift of prophecy; 
Haworth asserts, on the unsubstantial basis of Halliwell- 
Phillipps’ reduced facsimile of the First Folio, that the word 
should be fight — but in the original folio as well as in the 
full-sized facsimiles the word is clearly sight. Assuming fight 
as the reading, he interprets the line “Through the struggle 
I endure in giving up things, dear to me,” but the usual 


138 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


interpretation is “Through my peculiar insight into what 
is desirable.” (Times Literary Supplement, May 21, 
1925.) 

95. A strange fellow here. Plato (427-346 b.c.), the 
Greek philosopher, is probably the “strange fellow” since 
the lines which Ulysses quotes resemble a passage in Plato’s 
dialogue, “First Alcibiades.” 

178. give. Both Q and F read goe. 

194. one of Priam's daughters. According to Caxton, 
Achilles, who was in love with Polyxena, had obtained per¬ 
mission to marry her from her parents King Priam and Queen 
Hecuba, on the condition that he bring about peace between 
the Greeks and the Trojans. His efforts failed; so he shut 
himself up in his tent in melancholy. After the death of 
Patroclus, Achilles took the field and slew Hector. Hecuba 
lured Achilles to the Temple of Apollo to discuss his marriage 
with Polyxena, and there had Paris slay him treacherously 
to avenge the death of Hector. At the end of the war, the 
Greeks were delayed by unfavorable winds until, at the in¬ 
sistence of Calchas, they sacrificed Polyxena to atone for the 
murder of Achilles by her brother, Paris. According to 
Caxton, Achilles did not fall in love with Polyxena until 
after the death of Hector, but Shakespeare for purposes of 
plot makes the change. 

197. Plutus, the god of wealth, not to be confounded with 
Pluto, god of the underworld. 

209. Pyrrhus , the young son of Achilles, who, according to 
Caxton, slew the Amazon queen, Penthesilea, Hecuba, and 
Polyxena. 

215. The fool slides o'er the ice. There was an anecdote 
current in Shakespeare’s company, probably told to Shake¬ 
speare by Robert Armin (1599-1603), a fellow member, that 
a half-witted, stage-struck country-fellow attempted to follow 
a company of players, and passed safely over an expanse of 
ice so thin that a brickbat dropped on it broke through. 
(Halliwell-Phillipps, A Nest of Ninies [T 605-1608], Shake¬ 
speare Society, 1842, pp. 37, 38.) 

There are several interpretations of the passage in the play 
possible. One is, “You (Achilles) should break the thin ice 
Ajax is sliding over, and so keep him in his own place” 
(Tatlock). Another is, “The fool (Ajax) can run risks which 
would be fatal to, or unworthy of, a man of your (Achilles’) 
dignity and position” (Paradise). 


SUMMARIES AND NOTES 


139 


ACT IV —SCENE 1 

After a spirited interchange between Diomedes and /Eneas, 
the former delivers Antenor to the Trojans. Paris in asking, 
“Who, in your thoughts, deserves fair Helen best, Myself or 
Menelaus?” occasions Diomedes’ denunciation of her as a 
wanton. 

23. Anchises, the father of /Eneas. 

24. Venus, the mother of /Eneas. 

SCENE 2 

It is early morning. Troilus and Cressida, extremely happy, 
part in a most appealing love scene. Pandarus greets them 
with good-morning ribaldry. /Eneas arrives and informs them 
of the fate decided for Cressida. She declares that she has 
forgotten her father and “will not go from Troy.” 

32. capocchia; in both Q and F chipochia. 

SCENE 3 

Troilus promises Paris to deliver Cressida to Diomedes. 
SCENE 4 

The love of Troilus and Cressida is disturbed by feelings of 
jealousy and distrust as Troilus insistently cautions Cressida 
to be faithful. They promise constancy to each other, and 
exchange a glove and a sleeve as tokens of faithfulness. 
Diomedes leads away Cressida. 

28. Have the gods envy ? The ancients believed that great 
beauty, happiness, skill, or strength made the gods envious, 
and so led to misfortune. 

122. zeal. Both Q and F read seale. 

SCENE 5 

When Diomedes leads Cressida into the lists at the Greek 
camp, the leaders roundly salute her with kisses while she 
engages with them in coarse repartee. After she has de¬ 
parted, Ulysses condemns her as a “wanton.” 

As Ajax and Hector enter the lists, Ulysses voices the opin¬ 
ion of dEneas that Troilus is a better warrior than Hector. 
A few blows are exchanged between Ajax and Hector, but 
the latter refuses to continue the struggle because of his kin- 


140 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


ship with Ajax. Hector is introduced to the Greek leaders as 
a friend but is quite rudely received, especially by Achilles. 
After bragging of their prowess, Hector and Achilles agree to 
fight on the morrow. The scene ends with Ulysses agreeing 
to lead Troilus to Cressida. 

9. Aquilon, the north wind. 

62. sluttish spoils of opportunity, women of loose morals; 
prostitutes. 

141. Neoptolemus, apparently another name for Achilles, 
though eminent authorities have disagreed as to just whom 
Shakespeare meant. Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, was called 
Neoptolemus, but at this time he was a boy and “still at 
home” (iii. 3. 209). 

142. Oyes. Both Q and F read 0 yes. 


ACT V —SCENE 1 

A token, sent from Polyxena by Thersites to Achilles, re¬ 
minds him of the oath he made her to fail the Greeks. Ther¬ 
sites rails against the devotion of Achilles for Patroclus. 
After Hector is led to his sleeping-quarters, Ulysses and 
Troilus follow Diomedes to Cressida’s tent; Thersites in a 
soliloquy presents Diomedes as a false rogue, and Cressida 
as his drab. 

20. rotten diseases of the south. Diseases were supposed 
to be borne by the south wind. 

55-56. goodly transformation of Jupiter. Jupiter turned 
himself into a white bull in order to win or abduct Europa. 


SCENE 2 

Ulysses and Troilus, before Calchas’ tent, spy on the love 
scene between Cressida and Diomedes. Cressida gives 
Diomedes the sleeve Troilus had given her as a token of con¬ 
stancy. Troilus is completely disillusioned and swears to 
have Diomedes’ life. Thersites, the interpreter and com¬ 
mentator, sums up the whole controversy as consisting merely 
of “wars and lechery.” 

56. potato-finger. Potatoes were supposed to have the 
power of stimulating sexual desires. 

151. Ariachne’s broken woof. Ariachne’s skill in weaving 
angered the goddess Pallas, who turned her into a spider. 


SUMMARIES AND NOTES 


141 


SCENE 3 

Back in Troy Hector is determined to fight in spite of the 
warning of Andromache, Cassandra, and Priam that the day 
is ominous. Pandarus brings a letter to Troilus from Cressida, 
which he promptly tears to bits. 

38. fits a lion. The lion was supposed to be very merciful 
as in the fable of the lion and the mouse, familiar to all school 
children. The idea is not new; Pliny in his Natural History 
declares, “The lion alone of all wild beasts is gentle to those 
that humble themselves before him, and will not touch any 
such upon their submission, but spareth what creature so¬ 
ever lieth prostrate before him.” 

SCENE 4 

This scene again presents Thersites scurrilously analyzing 
the situation. He is interrupted first by the fight of Diomedes 
and Troilus, and then by Hector who is looking for a noble 
Greek to kill. 

At the Globe Theatre in Shakespeare’s day, most of these 
scenes of battle were virtually one. 

SCENE 5 

Diomedes dispatches a servant to Cressida with Troilus’ 
horse and the false message that he, Diomedes, has “chastised 
the amorous Trojan.” Agamemnon enters with the news that 
the battle is going against the Greeks. Achilles and Ajax are 
awakened out of their indolence; Achilles, because Patroclus 
is slain; Ajax, because a friend has been slain. Achilles de¬ 
clares that he will meet none but Hector; Ajax, none but 
Troilus. 

6. Polydamas, the son of Antenor. 

7. Menon, the cousin of Achilles. 

Margarelon, a son of Priam. 

8. Doreus, an earl accompanying Ajax. 

11. Epistrophus, an ally of the Greeks. 

Cedius, a brother of Epistrophus. Epistrophus and 
Cedius; spelled in both Q and F, and also in Caxton Epis- 
tropus and Cedus. 

Polyxenes, a Greek duke who was slain by Hector. 

12. Amphimachus, “kyng of Calydone,” was slain by 
J2neas. 


142 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


12. Thoas, a king and cousin of Achilles. 

13. Palamedes, a Greek duke who was slain by Paris with 
a poisoned arrow. 

14. Sagittary. “A mervayllous beste that was called sagit- 
tayre, that behinde the myddes was an horse, and to fore a 
man: this beste was heery like an horse, and had his eyen 
rede as a cole, and shotte well with a bo we: this beste made 
the Greeks sore aferde, and slew many of them with his bo we’* 
(Caxton). Diomedes is credited with killing the monster. 

SCENE 6 

Troilus is fighting both Diomedes and Ajax. Achilles meets 
Hector but refuses to fight, and offers the excuse that his 
“arms are out of use.” Troilus enters declaring that although 
Ajax has taken iEneas, he will prevent Ajax from carrying 
him off. 


SCENE 7 

Achilles instructs his Myrmidons how to murder Hector. 
Thersites proclaims that “the cuckold and the cuckold-maker” 
(Menelaus and Paris) are engaged. 


SCENE 8 

Wearied by fighting. Hector removes his helmet and shield. 
Achilles and the Myrmidons kill him from behind. 

18. stickler-like. An umpire at a duel was called a stickler. 
His duty was to part the duelists with his staff if the issue 
could be decided without bloodshed. 

21. tie his body. Shakespeare has arranged this scene as 
told by Caxton. Caxton says of the Greeks’ treatment of 
the body of Troilus, “Achilles . . . toke the body and bonde 
hit to the taylle of his horse And so drewe hit after hym 
thrugh oute the ooste.” Shakespeare portrays the Greeks as 
treating the body of Hector in that fashion. Caxton declares 
that the body of Hector was brought back to Troy and that 
the body of Troilus was buried during a truce accorded by 
the Greeks. 


SCENE 9 

The soldiers announce Hector’s death to the Greek leaders. 


SUMMARIES AND NOTES 


143 


SCENE 10 

Troilus announces Hector’s death to the Trojan leaders, 
and pictures his body as being dragged ignominiously around 
the field tied to the tail of Achilles’ horse. The drama ends 
with an epilogue full of obscene and localized Elizabethan 
wit delivered by Pandarus to the audience. 

19. Niobes. Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus, and wife of 
Aurphion, king of Thebes. Her seven sons and daughters 
were slain by Apollo and Artemis. 

46-47. painted cloths, wall coverings in Elizabethan houses, 
decorated with water-color pictures, often with mottoes and 
maxims painted as if proceeding from the mouths of the figures. 



' 








■ 





























APPENDIX A 


DRAMATIS PERSON.® 


None of the Folios has a list of characters. It is first given 
by Rowe (1709). 

The following biographical accounts are adapted from 
Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and 
Mythology. Under (a) is given the Homeric version, under 
(6) the version as developed by the Middle Ages and sub¬ 
sequently refashioned by Shakespeare. The following chart 
has been included so that the reader may have before him for 
consultation a panorama of this development from Homer to 
Shakespeare. 


Dictys Cretensis _ 
Ephemeris Belli Troiani 
4 th Century AD. 



Homer 

9 th Century B.C* 

" Dares Phrygii 

^ ., De ExicidioTroiae His toria 

Ovid 6* Century AD. 

Metamorphoses " 

1 st Century A.D. 


Benoit de Sainte-More 
Roman de Troie 
1160 


Boccaccio 
II Filostrato 
13 3 91?) 


Lydgate (?) 
iroyBook 
*4400(?> 



Chaucer 
Troilus and Criseyde 
1385<?) 

' \" 


Guido delle Colonne 
Historia Troiana 
1287 


Raoul le Fevre 
Recueil des Histories 
de Troie 1464 

Caxton 

Recuyell of the Historves 
ofTroye 1474 


Elizabethan Version^ 
1500 -1599 . 


Translations of Homer (?) 
Ovid’s Metamorphoses '\ 


Shakespeare 

Troilus and Cressida 1601-2 

145 


146 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


The medieval Troy story is seen to arise out of the Homeric 
fictions of Dictys and Dares. The elaboration of the story into 
a French medieval romance, in which are involved the faithful 
love of Troilus and the faithlessness of Cressida, is the work of 
Benoit de Sainte-More. Guido delle Colonne by making a 
Latin version of Benoit’s French poem gave the romance a 
wide circulation. Boccaccio, who consulted both Benoit and 
Guido, wrought out a single and unified love story and added 
the character of Pandarus. Chaucer turned Boccaccio’s 
Pandarus from an accommodating friend and gentleman into a 
middle-aged uncle, and Boccaccio’s fickle beauty, Griseda, 
into the faithless yet piteous Criseyde. Shakespeare’s play 
follows more closely Caxton’s version, which harks back to 
Benoit, through Raoul le Fevre and Guido, but his charac¬ 
terizations are in accord with Elizabethan rather than with 
either Homeric or Chaucerian conceptions. 

Achilles (a) is the hero of the Iliad. He was the son of 
Thetis, the Nereid, and Peleus, king of the Myrmidons. His 
mother foretold that his fate was either to gain glory and die 
early, or to live a long but inglorious life. Achilles chose the 
former, and took part in the Trojan War. When Agamem¬ 
non was obliged to return Chryseis to her father, he threatened 
to take Briseis away from Achilles. Achilles surrendered her 
on the persuasion of Athena, but refused to take any further 
part in the war. Zeus, entreated by Thetis, promised that the 
Trojans should be successful until the Achseans honored her 
son. When the affairs of the Greeks consequently declined, 
they sent to Achilles, offering him rich gifts and Briseis, but 
in vain. When Achilles’ dearest friend, Patroclus, was slain 
in battle, Achilles arose and put the Trojans to flight. In the 
I succeeding battle, he slew Hector, tied the corpse to his 
chariot, and dragged it to the Greek ships. Afterwards he 
gave up the corpse to Priam. Achilles fell in battle at the 
Scsean gate when Troy was captured. He was the hand¬ 
somest and the bravest of the Greeks. Affectionate and gentle 
at home, his greatest passion was glory in war. 

( b ) The degradation of Achilles began early with Dares and 
Dictys. Both picture Achilles killing men by treachery: 
Dictys had him kill Hector by surprise while crossing a river, 
and Dares had him kill Troilus by a ruse. In Benoit de Sainte- 
More, Achilles triumphs over Troilus by surrounding him 
with a band of soldiers. Thus, even from the days of Dares, 


APPENDIX A 


147 


Achilles was ready for Shakespeare’s drawing; a braggart, a 
traitor, and a coward — a slacker, for the sake of Priam’s 
daughter. 

^neas (a), Trojan hero in the Homeric story, was the son of 
Anchises and Aphrodite, and was born on Mount Ida. He 
took no part in the Trojan War until after Achilles had 
attacked him and driven away his flocks. Then he gathered 
his Dardanians and became one of the Trojan leaders. 
Later Stories. — Most accounts agree that after the cap¬ 
ture of Troy, flEneas withdrew to Mount Ida; and that 
from there he crossed over to Europe, finally settling in Italy, 
where he became the ancestral hero of the Romans. Vergil’s 
JEneid gives an account of his wanderings on the way, and of 
his love affair with Dido at Carthage. 

(6) The partiality of the English for the Trojans is in 
perfect harmony with a Latin tradition, transmitted from 
antiquity through the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. 
Latin rather than Greek literature made up the classical 
education of the Middle Ages and of the greater part of the 
Renaissance. Because of Vergil’s JEneid the Romans be¬ 
lieved themselves descendants of the Trojans through iEneas. 
The barbarians who overran Rome came also to consider 
themselves related to this great tradition which grew and 
spread until the Trojans became the parent nation for the new 
European states including also the British Isles founded by 
Brute, the descendant of iEneas. Both Dares and Dictys 
represent Antenor and iEneas as secretly delivering the city 
into the hands of the Greeks, and Dares alone says it is they, 
and not the Homeric Sinon, who gave the signal for the return 
of the Greek fleet to Troy. Shakespeare, however, depicts 
flEneas as honorable and patriotic, though pompous and 
boastful in delivering Hector’s challenge. 

Agamemnon (a), called by Homer the son of Atreus, was 
brought up together with ^Egisthus, son of Thyestes, in the 
house of Atreus. After the murder of Atreus by iEgisthus 
and Thyestes, Agamemnon and Menelaus went to Sparta. 
Here Agamemnon married Clytemnestra, daughter of King 
Tyndareos, became king of Mycenae and the most powerful 
prince in Greece. He was chosen commander-in-chief of the 
Greek forces that gathered at Aulis to sail for Troy in order to 
recover Helen, wife of his brother, who had eloped with Paris. 
At Aulis, Agamemnon killed a stag sacred to Artemis, who 


148 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


thereupon visited the. Greek army with a pestilence, and 
produced a calm which prevented the Greeks from leaving the 
port. To appease her wrath, Agamemnon consented to sacri¬ 
fice his daughter Iphigenia. The calm ceased, and the army 
sailed to Troy. In the tenth year of the war Agamemnon 
quarreled with Achilles over the Trojan maidens, Cryseis and 
Bryseis. When Troy fell, Agamemnon received Cassandra, 
Priam’s daughter, as his prize. On his return home he was 
murdered by .Egisthus, who had become the paramour of 
Clytemnestra in her husband’s absence. 

( b ) Agamemnon’s only contribution to the action of the 
play is his grant of Calchas’ request to exchange Antenor with 
the Trojans for Cressida. As the commander-in-chief of the 
Greek forces, he has suffered a come-down in Shakespeare 
almost to the point of being a nonentity. His character, one 
of an empty haughtiness, is taken off by Thersites: “Here’s 
Agamemnon, an honest fellow enough, and one that loves 
quails; but he has not so much brain as ear-wax.” (v. 1. 53-55.) 

Ajax (a), called Aias by the Greeks, was the son of Telamon, 
king of Salamis, and grandson of TSacus. He sailed against 
Troy with twelve ships. Answering with other chieftains 
Hector’s challenge, he received the lot to fight, and wounded 
Hector. Ajax was also one of the ambassadors sent to con¬ 
ciliate Achilles. In the contest over the armor of Achilles, he 
was conquered by Ulysses, a defeat, says Homer, which 
caused his death. Another version relates that he went 
mad over his defeat, rushed out and slaughtered the sheep of 
the Greek army, and committed suicide. 

(6) Ajax as a partly comic figure in Shakespeare is amply 
accounted for in later Greek, Latin, and medieval literature. 
Through the Iliad and the Odyssey he retains his heroic 
dignity, but in Sophocles, though still dignified, he is an 
example of insolent impiety, showing hatred, revenge, and 
braggadocio towards the gods. Ovid’s account makes him 
still meaner and more arrogant, almost a lily-livered boaster, 
without intelligence. He kills himself saying that none but 
Ajax can conquer Ajax. This is the Ajax that was known to 
the Elizabethans, and his classical savagery and mad absurdity 
they eagerly seized upon and greatly developed. In Shake¬ 
speare he becomes a comic paradox, a combination of the Ajax 
of Homer and the Elizabethan Ajax, a beefy, absurd egotist, 
and yet a mighty warrior. 



APPENDIX A 


149 


Andromache (a) was the daughter of Eetion, king of Cilician 
Thebes. She was married to Hector, by whom she had a son, 
Scamandrius (Astyanax). At the taking of Troy, her son was 
hurled from its walls, and she herself became the prize of 
Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, who took her to Epirus. After¬ 
wards she married Helenus, a brother of Hector and ruler of 
Chaonia. After Helenus’ death she followed her son, Per- 
gamus, to Asia and died there. 

(6) Medieval romancers are responsible for the story of 
Andromache’s dream and her warning to Hector. For ex¬ 
ample, in Benoit de Sainte-More the scene is 271 lines in 
length, and Andromache is represented as bawling, beating 
her breast, and tearing her hair when her warning to Hector 
goes unheeded. The scene of farewell in Homer, however, is 
one of the most beautiful and moving in all poetry. An¬ 
dromache’s complaint is untinged by weakness or emotion; and 
Hector treats her with the deepest tenderness. How different 
from Shakespeare’s Andromache, who wheedles, and his 
Hector, who says: 

“You train me to offend you; get you in: 

By all the everlasting gods, I’ll go!” 

Calchas (a), son of Thestor of Megara, was the wisest sooth¬ 
sayer among the Greeks at Troy. He foretold the duration 
of the Trojan War and explained the cause of Apollo’s anger. 

(6) Shakespeare’s Calchas bears little resemblance to 
Homer’s. Instead, he is fashioned after Dares, who repre¬ 
sents him as a Trojan gone over to the Greeks in consequence 
of his prophetic spirit, by which he foreknew the fatal future 
of Troy. In Shakespeare we see him in the Greek camp while 
his daughter remains at Troy. 

Cassandra was the daughter of Priam and Hecuba, and twin 
sister of Helenus. Apollo, affected by her great beauty, 
endowed her with the gift of prophecy upon her promise to 
comply with his desires; but, upon receiving the prophetic 
art, she broke her promise. Thereupon Apollo ordained that 
her prophecies should not be believed. In the Trojan War 
she continually foretells the impending calamities, but no one 
heeds her; even Priam himself thinks her mad. On the cap¬ 
ture of Troy, she fled into the sanctuary of Athena, but was 
torn away from the temple and fell to the lot of Agamemnon, 


150 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


who took her home to Mycenae. Here she was killed by 
Clytemnestra, Agamemnon’s wife. 

Cressida. Although the Homeric origin of the name 
“Cressida” may be sought in either Briseis or Chryseis, over 
whom Agamemnon and Achilles quarrelled, both of these 
characters of the Iliad, remain throughout antiquity as 
Homer fashioned them. Shakespeare’s coquette has another 
origin. The Troilus and Cressida theme was apparently in¬ 
vented by Benoit de Sainte-More in his Roman de Troie. 
The heroine Briseida has already the essential characteristics 
of Shakespeare’s Cressida, for she is very comely, has a “quick 
and ready wit,’’ “a changeable heart,’’ and is already a faithless 
coquette. Although Benoit found a translator in Guido, and 
Guido found many imitators, it was not until Boccaccio wrote 
his Filostrato that the love story was further developed, 
mainly from Guido’s book. The work is too profoundly sub¬ 
jective for the principal interest to be in Briseida, and as a 
consequence she becomes, though charming and voluptuous, 
shadowy and inconsistent. Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde 
(1385?), based mainly upon Boccaccio, retains Criseyde as a 
widow (as in Boccaccio), but she is even more obdurate than 
the Italian heroine, and so complex that critics are unable to 
agree in estimating her character. Certainly, she receives a 
sympathetic treatment from Chaucer, and although the poet 
himself seems amazed at her treachery, he pities her, but still 
condemns her. Robert Henryson in the Testament Of Cressid 
is responsible for Cressida’s degeneration into a harlot. He 
drags her deeply into the mire and depicts her deserted by 
Diomedes, stricken by leprosy, and dying of a broken heart. 
An increasing morality continued to condemn her even more 
severely, until in the sixteenth century she became the leprous 
wanton of street ballads, 1 and her name a byword for a loose 
and faithless woman. Tradition had cast her character firmly 
and unalterably before Shakespeare touched her. Sympa¬ 
thetic treatment of her was impossible, and a chaste Cressida, 
such as Dryden later created, would have been jeered off the 
stage. It should be observed, however, that, as Rollins points 
out, Shakespeare’s treatment of Cressida is more tolerant 
than that of his age;\if he does not make us pity her, hevdoes 
not draw her as a creature of the gutters and the stews.\ 


1 H. E. Rollins, P.M.L.A., Vol. 32, pp. 393-394. 


APPENDIX A 


151 


Deiphobus, a son of Priam and Hecuba, was, next to Hector, 
the bravest among the Trojans. According to one tradition 
he was slain and mangled by Menelaus on the capture of Troy 
by the Greeks. 

Diomedes (a), son of Tydeus and Deipyle, in the Homeric 
story went to Troy with eighty ships, and, next to Achilles, 
was the bravest Greek hero. Under Athena’s protection he 
fought against the most distinguished Trojans such as Hector 
and iEneas. The Iliad describes him as brave in war, wise in 
counsel, and strong like a god. 

(6) Benoit de Sainte-More, in order to provide a contrast to 
the spiritual devotion of Troilus and a motive for the in¬ 
constancy of Briseis (Cressida), transformed the honest and 
wise Diomedes of Homer into an arch-seducer. Chaucer’s 
Diomedes, too, was a faithless philanderer. In the Testament 
of Cressid, Henryson, though changing the character of 
Cressida, retains the same Diomedes, who soon tires of his 
mistress and turns her out. Thus Diomedes comes to Shake¬ 
speare; though not the sneaky seducer of Benoit, he is still 
sensual and brutal. 

Hector (a), chief hero of the Trojans, the eldest son of Priam 
and Hecuba, was the husband of Andromache, and father of 
Scamandrius. When Diomedes was pressing the Trojans, 
Hector sent a challenge for a single combat to the bravest 
of the Greeks; Ajax accepted. In the contest Hector was 
wounded, but later he repelled Ajax, fired the Greek ships, 
and slew Patroclus, Achilles’ friend. The other Trojans fled 
before the wrath of Achilles into the city, but Hector re¬ 
mained without the walls. When he saw Achilles, however, 
he fled thrice around the city before he fell pierced by Achilles’ 
spear. 

( b ) Of all the Trojan heroes in Shakespeare’s play, Hector 
is the least caricatured. The Homeric tradition, even in me¬ 
dieval romances, had preserved him his nobility, and when 
we see him in Shakespeare as prudent and brave, with a 
peculiarly high sense of justice and honor, it is only because 
throughout the Middle Ages, and hence in Caxton’s History, 
Hector played a glorious part, and Achilles an ignoble one. 
His Homeric character, however, though not degraded, has 
been slightly changed. With Shakespeare he has become a 
nationalist as well as a warrior. Had his good sense prevailed, 


152 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


Helen would have been sent back to Menelaus, and the useless 
war been brought to an end. 

Helen (a) was a daughter of Zeus and Leda, and sister of 
Poly deuces (Pollux) and Castor; some traditions called her a 
daughter of Zeus and Nemesis. Of surpassing beauty, she was 
wooed by the noblest chiefs of Greece; she wedded Menelaus 
and bore him a daughter, Hermione. She was subsequently 
seduced by Paris and carried to Troy. After the capture of 
Troy, she became reconciled to Menelaus, and returned home 
with him to Sparta. 

( b ) According to the Odyssey Helen was to transcend mortal 
death and be conducted to Elysium by the gods, but in 
Shakespeare she is of the commonest clay. In the play she 
speaks but thirty lines of amorous repartee with Pandarus. 
“Let thy song be love,” she says to Pandarus; “this love 
will undo us all. O Cupid, Cupid, Cupid!” But Thersites 
sees it with a harsher reality, “Nothing but lechery! All 
incontinent varlets!” 

Helenus, son of Priam and Hecuba, was celebrated for his 
prophetic powers. After the fall of Troy he foretold to 
Pyrrhus the suffering which awaited the Greeks who returned 
home by sea, and prevailed upon him to return to Epirus by 
land. After Pyrrhus’ death he received a portion of that 
country, and married Andromache. 

Menelaus (a), son of Atreus, and younger brother of Agamem¬ 
non, was king of Lacedaemon, and husband of Helen. After 
the Trojan War Helen became reconciled to her husband, 
and together with Nestor they sailed away from Troy. They 
wandered for eight years before reaching home. Afterwards 
Menelaus and Helen lived at Sparta in peace and wealth. 
In the Homeric poems, though he is described as reticent, his 
speeches are always impressive. He was brave and coura¬ 
geous, milder than Agamemnon, but intelligent and hospitable. 

(6) The highly wronged Menelaus of Homer, by the time 
he reaches Shakespeare, has become “that shabbiest of 
Elizabethan butts, a cuckold.” He speaks but twelve lines. 
To his frigid “How do you?” Achilles, offended and out¬ 
raged, replies, “What, does the cuckold scorn me?” and 
Thersites sums up the contention with his sardonic fling, 
“All the argument is a cuckold and a whore.” 


APPENDIX A 


153 


Nestor (a), king of Pylos, was the only one of twelve sons not 
slain by Hercules. In his youth, Nestor was a distinguished 
warrior. At Troy he took part in all important events, both 
in council and battle. Through him, Agamemnon became 
reconciled with Achilles, and henceforth always applied to 
Nestor for advice. His most striking features, according to 
Homer, were his wisdom, justice, bravery, and eloquence. 

(b) Though Thersites brands Nestor as “a stale old mouse- 
eaten dry cheese, ” the old man in Shakespeare’s version is not 
a wholly disagreeable person, and retains some of his Homeric 
sagacity. 

Pandarus. There are two persons named Pandarus in Homer, 
and one in Vergil, but the name is all they have in common 
with that character in Shakespeare. Boccaccio in his Filostrato 
was the first to add Pandarus to the Troilus and Cressida 
story, but his Pandaro is almost diametrically opposed in 
character to the Pandarus of Shakespeare. It is evident 
from Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde that for the English the 
man’s trade is a vile one, but for Boccaccio and the Italians 
this go-between is a knight who is himself in love, a faithful 
friend, who holds it his duty by friendship and chivalry to 
serve Troilus in his love affair, and who expects no reward 
in return. 

In Chaucer’s poem right and wrong hinge on medieval 
convention in which “honor” is the keynote. If Criseyde’s 
“honor” is not to be stained, the preservation of absolute 
secrecy is necessary. Thus Pandarus, in assuming the role of 
a go-between, is taking a chance of being involved in a scandal 
that will besmirch both his good name and Criseyde’s as well. 
Though he is unmoral, he is no base mercenary procurer, 
but rather a kindly, sympathetic friend. 

Early in the sixteenth century, however, “Pander” had 
become a common noun, a generic name for procurer, and 
Shakespeare could no more raise Pandarus to respectability 
than he could Cressida. 

Paris (a), also called Alexander, was the second son of Priam 
and Hecuba. Before his birth, Hecuba dreamed that he 
would bring about the ruin of his native city. Accordingly, 
he was exposed on Mount Ida at birth and brought up by a 
shepherd who gave him the name of Paris. When grown, he 
discovered his real origin and was received by Priam as his 


154 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


son. He married CEnone, daughter of the river god Cebrenis, 
but deserted her for Helen. The tale runs that Hera, Aphro¬ 
dite, and Athena each claimed the famous golden apple, 
inscribed “To the fairest,” for herself. Zeus ordered the 
decision to be entrusted to Paris. As Aphrodite promised him 
the fairest of women for his wife, he decided in her favor. 
This judgment incurred in Hera and Athena fierce hatred 
against Troy. Under Aphrodite’s protection, Paris went to 
Greece, and was received at Menelaus’ palace. Here he 
carried off Helen, Menelaus’ wife. Her former suitors, the 
noblest chiefs of Greece, resolved to avenge her abduction 
and sailed against Troy. Before the walls of Troy, Paris was 
defeated in combat by Menelaus. On the capture of Troy, 
Paris was wounded by Philoctetes, returned to his wife 
CEnone, on Mount Ida, and died there. 

(&) Although in general the Middle Ages dimmed the lustre 
of the heroes, Paris appears as one of the bravest of the Trojan 
warriors. In Shakespeare Paris’s glory is dimmed by his 
refusal to follow Hector’s counsel and return Helen, and by his 
indulging in low bantering with Pandarus. 

Patroclus (a), while a boy, involuntarily committed murder 
during a dice game. He was taken by his father to Peleus at 
Phthia, where he met Achilles, a kinsman, and a strong 
friendship arose between them. He accompanied Achilles to 
Troy, but when his friend withdrew from battle, Patroclus 
followed his example. When the Greeks were hard pressed 
by the Trojans, he dressed in Achilles’ armor and led the 
Myrmidons into battle. He drove back the Trojans, ex¬ 
tinguished the fire raging among the ships, and thrice made an 
assault on the walls of Troy. Suddenly he was struck senseless 
by Apollo. Then Euphorbus ran him through, and Hector 
finished him with a fatal blow. After a struggle, the Greeks 
secured his body, and Achilles on viewing it vowed to avenge 
his death. 

( b ) The attachment of Patroclus to Achilles was the object 
of Middle Age mud-slinging. With Shakespeare he becomes a 
pervert and a weakling, but this degradation made it possible 
for Shakespeare to use him as one of the comic personages of 
the play. 

Priam (a), king of Troy, was first married to Arisba, and 
afterwards to Hecuba. According to Homer he was the father 


APPENDIX A 


155 


of fifty sons, nineteen of whom were children of Hecuba. 
When the Greeks landed on the Trojan coast, Priam was ad¬ 
vanced in years and took no active part in battle. According 
to Homer, after the death of Hector, Priam went to the tent 
of Achilles to ransom his son’s body for burial, and obtained 
it. Upon the capture of Troy, he was slain by Pyrrhus, son 
of Achilles, at the altar of Zeus where he had taken refuge with 
Hecuba and her daughters. 

(b) In Troilus and Cressida Priam speaks only twenty lines; 
Shakespeare makes no divergences from Homer’s portrait of 
him. 

Thersites (a), a son of Agrius, was the ugliest and most 
impudent talker among the Greeks at Troy. Once, when he 
had spoken in the assembly in an unbecoming manner against 
Agamemnon, he was chastised by Ulysses. Finally, he dared to 
revile Achilles, who in anger slew him. 

(6) Although Shakespeare’s scurrilous Thersites resembles 
the reviling braggart of that name in Homer, it is not likely, 
as most critics have asserted, that Shakespeare borrowed his 
Thersites directly from Chapman’s Iliad. “Instead,” as 
Rollins 1 points out, “he must have been chiefly influenced by 
Heywood’s Iron Age or by an older play which they both 
used. Perhaps he knew John Heywood’s (?) interlude of 
Thersites, which was printed by Tyndale, 1552-1563. . . .” 
Shakespeare also knew the Thersites in Arthur Golding’s 
translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (1567). Shakespeare’s 
Thersites, like his Pandar, was intended to be purely a comic 
figure. Besides acting as a sort of court fool, he fulfils, in 
part at least, the function of Chorus in the play. In his gross 
and obscene language are observations of great shrewdness 
and significance. 

Troilus (a), who is merely mentioned in Homer as a young and 
brave warrior, was a son of Priam and Hecuba, or, according 
to others, a son of Apollo. He fell by the hand of Achilles. 

(6) Troilus became a famous person in medieval literature. 
From the Homeric young stripling cut off before his time, he 
becomes a chief hero of the Trojan army. Dares states that 
he was no less valiant than Hector. Benoit de Sainte- 

1 H. E. Rollins, “ The Troilus and Cressida Story,” P.M.L.A., 
Vol. 32, p. 418, footnote. 


156 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


More’s Roman de Troie and his translator, Guido delle 
Colonne, did little to change the character of Dares’ Troilus. 
But in Boccaccio’s Filostrato the love affair is of chief interest. 
He is all heart and emotion, languishing of love; and when his 
Cressida proves faithless, he is bereft of strength and sinks 
beneath the violence of his passion. In Benoit de Sainte-More 
he passes quickly from sorrow to contempt, and expresses the 
disdain of the one who has wounded him, with the bitter 
irony of one whose heart has been hardened, and his head 
made wiser by his experiences with an unfaithful lady-love. In 
Shakespeare both phases of the man are united — the plain¬ 
tive wail of a wretched lover, and the desperate warrior who 
rushes madly into the fight to cure himself of his infatuation. 


Ulysses (a), called Odysseus by the Greeks, was the most wily 
and subtle of the leaders in the Trojan War. According to 
Homer, he was a son of Laertes and Anticlea, and was married 
to Penelope, daughter of Icarius, by whom he had a son 
Telemachus. Even at an early age he was distinguished for 
his courage, his knowledge of navigation, his eloquence and 
skill as a negotiator. During the siege of Troy, he exhibited 
himself not only as a valiant and undaunted warrior, but also 
as a cunning spy and a prudent, tactful, and eloquent nego¬ 
tiator. He was one of the heroes concealed in the belly of the 
wooden horse. When the horse was opened, he and Menelaus 
were the first to jump out and hasten to the house of Deiphobus 
where the terrible struggle took place. 

( b ) Ulysses is perhaps the least caricatured of the Greek 
chieftains. To be sure, as a Middle Age creation, he has lost 
Homeric dignity, yet in spite of the petty intrigues, he 
escapes being wholly debased. Even Thersites, though he 
calls him “dog-fox,” entertains for him and for Nestor con¬ 
siderable respect. Ulysses is still the brain of the Greek army; 
he perceives that discipline has grown lax, he suggests the 
substitution of Ajax for Achilles in the combat with Hector, 
and the scheme for rousing Achilles by direct snubs. More¬ 
over, he is the only one of the Greek chiefs who sees Cressida 
for what she is, when she is delivered as a hostage. It is 
evident that Ulysses, in a sense, is the sage of the play, and is 
largely responsible for what seriousness it possesses. Richard 
Grant White, 1 captivated by the ornate rhetoric, contends that 

1 R. G. White: “On Reading Shakespeare.” 


APPENDIX A 


157 


Ulysses is not only the hero of the play, but Shakespeare him¬ 
self. Ulysses, he asserts, is the mouthpiece for Shakespeare’s 
mature wisdom of men and their motives. George Brandes 1 
thinks that Ulysses is “intended to represent the wise man of 
the play,” but really “is as trivial of mind as the rest,” and is 
not “one whit more sublime than the fools with whom he 
plays” — a criticism which if tempered with a higher opinion 
of his intelligence, would seem to be more reliable than 
White’s glorification. 

1 George Brandes: William Shakespeare. 


APPENDIX B 


EXCERPTS FROM CAXTON’S RECUYELL OF THE 
HISTORYES OF TROYE 1 

“This triewes duryng, the Kynge thoas was deliveryd in the 
stede of Anthenor . . . Calcas, that by the commandement of 
Apollyn had lefte the trioans, had a passing fayr doughter and 
wyse, named briseyda Chaucer in his booke that he made of 
Troylus named her creseydy. For whiche doughter he prayd to 
kynge Agamenon, and to the other prynces that they woalde 
requyre the kyng pryant to sende briseyda to hym. They prayde 
ynow to king pryant at the Instance of calcas But the troians 
blamed sore calcas, and callid hym evyll and fals traytre And 
worthy to dye that had lefte hys owne lande and his naturell lord 
for to goo into the companye of his mortall enemyes: Alleway at 
the petyticion of the grekes, the king pryant sente briseyda to 
her fader. 

“Telamon Ayax that was sone of kynge thelamon and exione 
And was cosyn germayn of hector and of his brethren whiche was 
wyse & vayllyant whiche addressid hym ayenst hector & de¬ 
liveryd to hym a grete assault And hector to hym as they that 
were valyant bothe two and as they were fightying they spak 
togeder And therby hector knewe that he was his cosyn germaine 
sone of his aunte And than hector for curtoisye embraced hym 
in his armes and made hym grete chiere And offrid to hym to do 
all his playsir yf he desired ony thynge of hym And prayed hym 
that he wolde come to troye with hym for to see hys lignage of hys 
modern syde. But . . . Thelamon . . . sayde that he wolde not 
goo at thys tyme. But prayd to hector . . . that he wolde . . . 
do cesse the battaill for that day. ... The unhappy Hector 
accorded to hym his requeste . . . than had the troians begonne 
to putte fyre in the shippes of the grekes and had alle brente hym 
ne had hector callyd them fro thens wherof the troians were sorry 
of the rappeel this was the cause wherfore the troians lost . . . 
to the whiche they myght never after atteyne ne come for fortune 
was to them contrarye: And therefore virgile sayth Non est 

1 Edited by Oscar Sommer £Nutt] 1895, Book III. 

158 


APPENDIX B 


159 


misericordia in bello That is to say ther is no mercy in bataill. 
A man ought not to talk misericorde But take the victorye who 
may gete hit. 

“ The trews durying hector wente hym on a day unto the tentes 
of the Grekes. And Achylles behelde hym gladly for as moche as 
he had never seen hym unarme. And at the requeste of Achylles 
Hector wente in to hys tente. And as they spack to geder of 
many thynge Achylles sayde to hector I have grete playsir to see 
the unarmed for as moche as I had never seen the to fore. But 
yet I shall have more playsir whan the day shall come that thou 
shalt dye of my hande Whyche thynge I moste desire. For I 
knowe the to be moche stronge. And I have often tymes provyd 
hit unto the effusion of my blood whereof I hafe grete Anger. 
And yet have I more grete sorowe for as moche as thou slewest 
Patroclus hym that I moste lovyd of the world. Than thou 
mayste beleeve for certayn that before thys yere be past his deth 
shall be avengyd upon the By my hande And also I wote well 
that thou desirest to slee me Hector answerd and sayde Achilles 
yf I desire thy deth mervaylle the nothynge therof. For as moche 
as thou deservest to be myn enemye mortall Thou art come in to 
our lande for to destroye me and myne. I wyll well that thou 
knowe that thy wordes fere me nothynge at all But yet I have 
hope that . . . yf I lyve And my swerde faylle me not That thou 
dye of myn handes. Not thou allonely but alle the moste grettest 
of the Grekes: For amonge you ye have enterprysid a grete folye. 
And ... I am assewrid that thou shalt dye of my hande Er I 
shall dye by thyne. And yf thou wene that thou be so stronge 
. . . make hit so that alle the barons of thyn ooste promise and 
accorde that we fighte body ayenst body. And yf hit happen that 
thou vaynquysshe me that my frendes and I shall be bannysshid 
oute of this royame and we shalle leve hit unto the Grekes And 
therof I shall leve good plegge And herein thou mayste prouffite 
to many other . . . And yf hit happen that I vaynquysshe the 
make that alle they of this ooste departe hens And suffre us to 
lyve in pees Achilles achauffid hym sore with these wordes And 
offeryd hym to doo this batayll and gaf to hector his gayge which 
hector toke and resseyvyd glady, etc. 

‘ ‘ Whan Agamemnon knew of this . . . bargayn He wente hym 
hastely unto the tente of Achylles with a grete companye of 
noblemen. Whiche wolde in no wise accorde ne agree to this 
battayll . . . And the troians sayden in lykewyse Save only the 
kynge pryant that wolde gladly agreed. . . . Thus was the 
champ broken. 


160 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


“Whan Troylus knewe certaynly that breseyda shold be sente 
to her fader he made grete sorowe. For she was his soverain lady 
of love. And in semblable wyse breseyda lovyd strongly Troylus. 
And she made also the grettest sorowe of the world for to leve her 
soverayn lord in love Ther was never so moche sorowe made 
betwene two lovers at their departying Who that lyste to here of 
alle theyr love late hym rede the booke of troyllus that Chawcer 
made wherin he shall fynde the storye hool whiche were to longe 
to wryte here But fynably breseyda was ledde unto the grekes 
whome they receyved honourably Amonge them was diomedes 
that anone was enflamed with the love of breyseyda whan he 
sawe her so fayr And in ridyng by her side he shewid her alle his 
corage And made to her many promesses and specially desired 
her love And than whan she knewe the corage of diomedes she 
excused her sayng that she wolde not agree to hym ne reffuse hym 
at that tyme. For her herte was not disposed at that tyme to 
answere otherwyse Of this answere Dyomedes had grete Joye. 
For as moche as he was not reffusid utterly And he accompanyed 
her unto the tente of her fader. And holpe her doun of her hors 
And toke fro her one of her glovys that she helde in her handes 
And she souffryd hym swetely. Calcas receyvyd her wyth grete 
Joye. . . . The comyng of breseyda plesid moche to alle the 
grekes. And they cam theder and fested her And demaunded of 
her tydinges of Troye. . . . And she sayd unto hem as moche as 
she knewe curtoysly. Than alle the grettest that were there 
promysyd her to kepe her and holde her as dere as her daughter. 
And than eche man wente in to hys owne Tente And there was 
none of hem but that gaf to her a Jewell . . . and than hit plesid 
her well to abide and dwell wyth the grekes and forgate anone the 
noble cyte of Troye and the love of the noble troyllus O how sone 
is the purpos of a woman chaungid and torned certes more sonner 
than a man can saie or thinke Now late had breseyda blamed her 
fader of the vyce of trayson whiche she herself exersised in for- 
getying her contre and her trewe frende troyllus, etc. 

“. . . dyomedes . . . fought with troillous at his comyng and 
smote hym doun and toke hys horse and sente hit to bresayda. 
And dyde to saye to her by his servant that hit was troyllus 
horse her love that he had beten hym by his prowesse and prayd 
her fro thanforth on that she wold holde hym for her love and 
frende etc. 

“Breseyda had grete Joye of these tydinges and sayd to the 
servaunt that he shold saye unto his lord that she myght not hate 
hym that wyth so good herte lovyd her Whan Diomedes knewe 


APPENDIX B 


161 


the answer he was right joyous and threstid in amonge his 
enemeyes. But the troians . . . maad the grekes to goo aback 
and recule unto their tentes. . . . 

“Diomedes suffred grete mysease for the love of breseida and 
nayght not ete ne reste for thynkying on her. And requyred her 
many tymes of her love. And she answerd hym right wysely 
gyvng hym hope wythoute certaynte of ony poynte by the whiche 
dyomedes was enflamed of alle poyntes in her love. 

“Diomedes and troyllus Justed togeder . . . and wythoute 
faylle eche of them had slayn other yf menelaus had not come 
and departid them . . . But the sayd troyllus . . . slewe many 
grekes. . 

“Afore that Achylles entered into the batayl he assembled his 
Myrmidons, and prayed them that they wold intend to none 
other thyng but to enclose Troyllus, and to hold hym without 
flying tyll he came, and that he wold not be far from them. And 
they promised hym that they so wold. And he thronged into the 
batayl. And on the other side came Troyllus, that began to flee 
and beat down all them that he caught, and dyd so much, that 
about myd-day he put the Grekes to flight; then the Myrmidons 
(that were two thousand fighting men, and had not forgot the 
commandement of theyr lord) thrust in among the troians, and 
recovered the field. And as they held them togeder, and sough 
no man but troyllus, they found him that he fought strongly, and 
was enclosid on all parts, but he slew and wounded many. And 
as he was allonly among them, and had no man to succour hym, 
they slew hys horse, and hurt hym in many places, and plucked 
off hys head helm, and hys coyf of iron, and he defendid hym in 
the best manere he cold. Then came on Achylles, when he saw 
troyllus alle naked, and ran upon hym yn a rage, and smote off 
hys head, and caste yt under the feet of his hors, and toke the 
body and bound yt to the tayl of hys hors, and so drew yt after 
hym throughout the ooste. 

“ Andrometha sawe that nyght a marvallous vysion. And her 
semed yf hector wente that day folowying to the battayle he 
shold be slayn. And she, that had grete fere and drede of her 
husbond, wepyng, sayd to hym, prayng hym that he wold not goo 
to the batayl that day: Whereof hector blamed his wyf saying 
that men shold not beleeve ne gyve fayth to drems, and wold 
not abyde nor tarye therfore. When hyt was in the mornyng, 
Andrometha wente unto the kynge pryant and to the quene and 
tolde to them the veryte of her vysion; and prayed to them wyth 
alle her herte that they wold doo so moche to hector, that he 


162 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


shold not that day go the bataylle, etc. . . . And the king priant 
sente to hector that he shold kepe hym well for that day fro 
goyng to batayll. Wherfore hector was angry, and sayd to his 
wyfe many wordes reprochable as he that knewe well that this 
defence cam by her requeste how be hyt ... he armed hym. 
With' this poynt cam upon them the quene hecuba, & the quene 
helayne and the susters of hector And they kneled doun tofore 
his feet, and prayed him with wepyng teerys that he wold doo of 
his harnoys, and unarme hym But never wold he doo hit for her 
prayers, but descended from the palays thus Armed as he was, 
and toke hys hors, and wold have goon to bataylle. But . . . 
the kinge priant can rennyng anone and toke hym by the brydell 
and sayd to hym so many thynges of one and other, that he maad 
hym to retorne but in no wyse he wold not unarm hym,” and 
later, as Caxton relates, “ wente hym to the batayll that hys fader 
knewe not of. . . . 

“Whan Achy lies sawe that hector slewe thus the nobles of 
Greece, and so many other that it was mervall to beholde . . . 
he ranne upon hym marvaylously . . . but hector caste to hym a 
darte so fiersly, and made him a wounde in his thye: and than 
Achyles yssued out of the batayll, and toke a gret spere in purpose 
to slee hector, yf he myght mete hym. . . . Hector had taken a 
moche noble baron of grece, moche queyntly and rychely armed. 
And, for to lede hym oute of the ooste at his ease, had caste his 
shelde behynd him at his backe and had lefte his breste dis- 
coverte and as he was in thys poynte and tooke none hede of 
Achylles, that cam pryvely unto hym, and putte hys spere wythin 
his body. And Hector fyll doun dede to the ground. 

“ Whan hector was ded and his body borne in to the cyte ther 
is no tonge that cude expresse the sorowe that was maad in the 
cyte . . . ther was none but he hade lever to have loste his owen 
sone than hym. And they sayd that from thensforth they had 
loste alle hope and truste of deffence. . . . Than whan the 
kynge pryant sawe hym he fyll down a swowne . . . and was as 
ded for sorowe . . . what myght men saye of the sorowe that his 
moder the quene made and after hys susters. O what sorowe 
maad hys wyf Certes there can no man expresse alle the lamenta- 
cions that there were maad.” 


APPENDIX C 


VERSIFICATION 

The student should understand in approaching the following 
explanation of some of Shakespeare’s metrical effects that the 
poet himself did not compose his verses by a similar analytic 
process. In writing a given passage, he did not say to himself, 
“Go too, now, I will place a caesura between the third and fourth 
foot of the first line; I will use a feminine ending in the next line; 
I will break up the march of regular blank verse in succeeding 
lines by varying the stresses, use a weak ending here and a broken 
line here, and round off the passage with a rhymed couplet.” 
If he had paused for such analyses, he never would have finished 
the play for which his company was pressing him. He wrote his 
lines for delivery in Elizabethan theaters, not for analysis in 
high school or college classrooms. 

The analysis of Shakespeare’s meter, then, is something ad¬ 
ventitious which we impose upon his lines in a vain endeavor to 
comprehend the range and variety of his extraordinary musical 
instrument. Because he commanded a greater vocabulary than 
any other writer in the whole annals of literature, and because he 
was a poetic as well as a dramatic genius, he had little difficulty 
in suiting the vocabulary to the character, or “the action to the 
word and the word to the action.” Shakespeare’s lines should be 
studied, then, not only for their musical, but also for their dramatic 
values. As Granville-Barker has admirably said: 

“The elemental oratory of his verse needs for its speaking a 
sense of rhythm that asks no help of strict rule. Shakespeare 
is so secure ... in the spirit of its laws that the letter may go. 
He does not commonly stray far. A caesura may fall oddly or 
there may be none distinguishable; a syllable or so may splash 
over at the end. Dramatic emphasis is the thing, first and last; 
to get that right he will sacrifice strict meter — yet never music — 
grammar now and then, and at a pinch, if need be, sheer sense 
too.” 

For example let us note Granville-Barker’s analysis of this 
passage from Antony and Cleopatra in which Antony is exploding 
in wrath on seeing Thyreus kissing Cleopatra’s hand: 

163 


164 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


“Approach there! Ah, you kite! Now, gods and devils! 
Authority melts from me: of late, when I cried ‘Ho!’, 

Like boys unto a muss, kings would start forth, 

And cry, ‘Your will?’ Have you no ears? 

I am Antony yet. Take hence this Jack, and whip him” 

(i. 13. 89-93). 

“Long lines, giving a sense of great strength. Exclamatory 
phrases, prefacing and setting off the powerful centre-phrase, 
with its ringing ‘kings’ for a top note. The caesura-pause of 
two beats that the short line allows is followed by the repeated 
crack of two more short phrases, the first with its upward lift, 
the second with its nasal snarl and the sharp click of its ending; 
the last line lengthens out, and the business finishes with the 
bitten staccato of: 

‘Take hence this Jack, and whip him.’” 


Metrical Values 

In reading English verse, one naturally stresses certain syllables 
and dwells with less time or emphasis on others. This stress 
corresponds to the length of vowels in Greek and Roman verse. 
When these stresses occur at more or less regular intervals, the 
composition is called verse, and the regular succession of stresses 
in the line, meter. The prevailing meter of Shakespeare’s plays is 
called iambic pentameter; the normal line consists of five feet, 
in each of which an unstressed is followed by a stressed syllable: 

w r v r w r \j r \j r 

Thou great | command | er, nerve | and bone | of Greece | (i. 3. 55). 

r r r r / ... 

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin (iii. 3. 175). 

A woman impudent and mannish grown (iii. 3. 217). 

This verse form, used first by Surrey for his translation of the 
Mneid (c. 1553) and later in the first English tragedy, Gorboduc 
(1562), acquired the name blank verse because it was unrhymed. 
In the hand of Marlowe ( d . 1593) it became so admirable a vehicle 
for dramatic poetry that only a Shakespeare was needed to 
perfect it. 

Troilus and Cressida, the third longest of Shakespeare’s plays, 
has 3,496 lines, against Richard Ill’s 3,619, and Hamlet’s 3,929. 
According to the recent tables of E. K. Chambers ( William 
Shakespeare, II, 398) 2,065 of the lines are standard blank verse; 
186 are rhymed, (a proportion of 9 per cent rhymed lines to all 
five-foot lines), 1,188 are prose, and 57 occur in external parts 



APPENDIX C 


165 


such as the Prologue. Of the rhymed lines 170 are heroic couplets, 
16 are short lines. Of blank verse lines there are 147 short lines, 
42 Alexandrines or 6-foot lines, 1,876 normal 5-foot lines, 463 
feminine endings, and 104 with extra mid-line syllables. 

Before examining these variations, we should remember that: 

1. Many words in Shakespeare’s time had: (a) pronunciations 
different from ours today, (6) two pronunciations. 

r r 

(а) Epicurean, Combating. 

y had the consonantal value, Troyans = Trojans. 
r ' 

(б) record, record (both nouns). 

2. As today many words admitted of: (a) full syllabication, 
or (6) slurring into one syllable, especially ion words. 

(а) To see the battle. Hector, whose 'patience (i. 2. 4). 

(б) And blind oblivion swallow’d cities up (iii. 2. 193). 

3. Other words may be elided: 

Upbraid my falsehood! when they've said as false (iii. 2. 197). 

4. Endings as in modern English are: (a) contracted by the 
elision of the vo^el, or (6) sounded if required. 

(а) Incurrd a traitor’s name; exposed myself (iii. 3. 6). 

(б) The fresh and yet unbruised Greeks do pitch 

(Prologue, 14). 

5. There may be various ways to scan a line, but the grouping 
of syllables in any particular foot is not important. Nor is it 
necessary to try to force a line against the natural pronunciation 
in order to make it conform to the iambic-pentameter pattern. 
The rhythmic, musical, and dramatic qualities that mark Shake¬ 
speare’s genius readily appear when a skilled reader of blank 
verse gives proper attention to varying stresses, pauses, ex¬ 
clamations, and other rhetorical devices. 

Variations. 

I. In meter: 

A. Extra syllables: 

(1) At the end of line (feminine endings): 

a. He chid Andromache and struck his armourer 
(i. 2. 6). 

b. Now expectation, tickling skittish spirits) (Pro¬ 
logue, 20). 


166 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


(2) Within the line: 

a. To doubtful fortunes); sequestering from me all 
(iii. 3. 8). 

B. Feet without stress: 

A spur to valiant and magnanimous deed (ii. 2. 200). 

C. Feet with inverted stress (trochaic foot) frequently at the 

beginning of a line: 

Let it be call’d the wild and wandering flood (i. 1. 107). 

D. Feet with double stress (spondaic foot): 

Hark , what good sport is out of town to-day (i. 1. 118). 

II. In rhyme: 

A large proportion of rhymed lines is found in Shakespeare’s 
early plays; for example, sixty-two per cent of the five-foot lines 
in Love’s Labour’s Lost are rhymed, as against nine per cent in this 
play. 

The couplet is used: 

A. To mark an exit, most frequently at the end of scenes: 

What error leads must err; O, then conclude 

Minds sway’d by eyes are full of turpitude (v. 2. 

110 - 111 ). 

Hence, broker-lackey! Ignomy and shame 

Pursue thy life, and live aye with thy name (v. 10. 

33-34). 

B. To point epigrammatic or sententious speeches: 

You have the honey still, but these the gall; 

So to be valiant is no praise at all (ii. 2. 144-145). 

III. In caesura: 

In primitive English pentameter, a pause naturally occurred 
at the end of each line, with a slighter pause (caesura) within 
the line, most frequently at the end of the second foot. Shake¬ 
speare avoided this monotony by varying the position of the 
caesura and by so-called enjambed or run-on lines. In Troilus 
and Cressida the caesura frequently occurs at the end of the third 
foot. 

Troy in our weakness stands, not in her strength (i. 3. 137). 
Often a line is broken at the end of a short speech, and this in¬ 
complete line is carried on to metrical completion by the next 
speaker in the next line. Frequently, moreover, the line is left 
a fragment, unfinished. 


APPENDIX C 


167 


To Tenedos they come (Prologue, 11). 

Folio texts are exceedingly lax in the matter of line division, and 
as a result, modern editors have sometimes had to revise the 
metrical scheme. Consequently, we cannot always be sure that 
the reconstructed lines present what Shakespeare originally in¬ 
tended. 

IV. In run-on lines: 

The variation that is most valuable in placing a play as an 
early or late work is the disappearance of the natural pause at 
the end of a line called for by the sense. In Shakespeare’s early 
plays the end of the line usually marks the completion of a * 
thought. In his later plays, the so-called enjambment, or run-on 
line, is very common, and the major pauses in ideas come in the 
middle of a line. 

And they will almost 
Give us a prince of blood, a son of Priam, 

In change of him (iii. 3. 25-27). 

The general characteristics of the verse (few rhymes, frequent 
feminine endings, many enjambments) place Troilus and Cressida 
in Shakespeare’s middle period. 

V. Prose: 

Shakespeare in Troilus and Cressida as in other plays mingles 
verse and prose in the same scene, even the same speech. The 
unseemly jests and jibes, the scurrilous lines of both Pandarus 
and Thersites are invariably in prose, and the more elevated 
passages in the love story and in the scenes of contention among 
the warriors are in blank verse. In other words, Shakespeare 
uses either prose or verse, or both intermingled, according to the 
character, the tone, the mood, or impression that he wishes to 
convey. 





























































































' 






















































































































































f 














GLOSSARY 


a’ (i. 2. 220), he. 
abject in regard (iii. 3. 128), 
held in little estimation, 
abruption (iii. 2. 69), break¬ 
ing off. 

accosting (iv. 5. 59), wooing, 
adamant (iii. 2. 185), the 

loadstone. 

addition (ii. 3. 258), title, 
additions (i. 2. 20), virtues, 
address (iv. 4. 146), prepare, 
advertised (ii. 2. 211), in¬ 
formed. 

affection (ii. 2. 177), passion, 
lust. 

affined (i. 3. 25), related, 
affronted (iii. 2. 172), en¬ 

countered. 

against (i. 2. 190), just be¬ 
fore. 

albeit (iii. 2. 141), although, 
allow (iii. 2. 97), acknowledge, 
allowance (i. 3. 377), ac¬ 

knowledgment, 
an (i. 1. 79), if. 
antics (v. 3. 86), buffoons, 
appear it (iii. 3. 3), let it 

appear. 

appertainments (ii. 3. 84), 
dignities. 

apply (i. 3. 32), explain, 
appointment (iv. 5. 1), equip¬ 
ment. 

apprehensions (ii. 3. 122), 
conception, perception, 
approve (iii. 2. 180), prove, 
argument (Prol. 25), subject 
of a play. 

artist (i. 3. 24), scholar, 
aspects (i. 3. 92), influence. 


assinego (ii. 1. 49), little ass. 
assubjugate (ii. 3. 200), de¬ 
base. 

attachment (iv. 2. 5), arrest, 
abeyance. 

attaint (i. 2. 26), taint, 
attest (v. 2. 121), testimony. 
-(ii. 2. 132), call to wit¬ 
ness. 

attribute (ii. 3. 123), reputa¬ 
tion. 

barks (Prol. 12), ships, 
batch (v. 1. 5), loaf, 
battle (iii. 2. 28), army, 
beam (v. 5. 9), heavy lance, 
beaver (i. 3. 296), helmet, 
the front of the helmet, 
beef-witted (ii. 1. 14), with 
no more wit than an ox. 
bestowing (iii. 2. 38), func¬ 
tions. 

bias (i. 3. 15), out of a 
straight line, awry, 
bias-drawing (iv. 5. 168), 

turning awry. 

bi-fold (v. 2. 143), two-fold, 
black-a-moor (i. 1. 81-82), 
negress. 

blank of danger (iii. 3. 231), 
unknown danger, 
blench (i. 1. 30), start, flinch, 
blench from (ii. 2. 68), fly off 
from. 

bless (ii. 3. 30), preserve, 
bob (iii. 1. 72), cheat, trick, 
bobbed (ii. 1. 76), thumped, 
bode (v. 2. 190), forebode, 
bodements (v. 3. 80), pre¬ 
sages. 




170 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


bolting (i. 1. 19), sifting, 
boot (iv. 5. 40), some ad¬ 
vantage. 

bought and sold (ii. 1. 51), 
made a fool of. 
bourn (ii. 3. 260), limit, 
bowels (ii. 1. 54; ii. 2. 11), 
compassion. 

boy-queller (v. 5. 45), boy- 
killer. 

brawn (i. 3. 297), arm. 
breese (i. 3. 48), gadfly, 
broad (i. 3. 190), puffed with 
pride. 

broils (i. 3. 379), basks, 
broken music (iii. 1. 52), 
“some instruments, such as 
viols, violins, flutes, etc., 
were formerly made in sets 
of four, which when played 
together formed a ‘con¬ 
sort.’ If one or more in¬ 
struments of one set were 
substituted for the cor¬ 
responding ones of another 
set, the result was no longer 
a ‘consort,’ but ‘broken 
music’” (Chapell). 
broken tears (iv. 4. 48), in¬ 
terrupted weeping, 
brooch (ii. 1. 125), female 
hound, bitch. 

brotherhoods (i. 3. 104), as¬ 
sociations. 

bruit (v. 9. 5), rumor, 
brushes (v. 3. 34), hurts, 
buss (iv. 5. 219), kiss, 
butt (v. 1. 30), “ruinous —,” 
decayed cask. 

by and by (i. 2. 303), directly, 
by God’s lid (i. 2. 227), by 
God’s eye, an oath. 

caduceus (ii. 3. 13), Mer¬ 
cury’s rod. 

Cancer (ii. 3. 204), the zo¬ 
diacal sign of the summer 
solstice. 


capocchia (iv. 2. 32), dolt or 
simpleton, fool, 
catlings (iii. 3. 305), strings of 
catgut. 

centre (i. 3. 85), earth, 
chafe thee (iv. 5. 259), be¬ 
come angry. 

change of (iii. 3. 27), ex¬ 
change for. 

chapmen (iv. 1. 77), buyers, 
characterless (iii. 2. 194), un¬ 
recorded. 

characters (i. 3. 325), fig¬ 
ures. 

circumstance (iii. 3. 114), de¬ 
tails of argument, 
clamours (i. 1. 94), noises, 
clapper-clawing (v. 4. 1), 

mauling. 

cliff (v. 2. 11), clef or key, a 
musical term. 

clotpoles (ii. 1. 128), block¬ 
heads. 

cloud (i. 2. 138), “a c. in 
autumn,” a cloud herald¬ 
ing bad weather, 
cobloaf (ii. 1. 41), a crusty, 
uneven loaf with a round 
top to it. 

cogging (v. 6. 11), cheating, 
cognition (v. 2. 63), percep¬ 
tion. 

colossus-wise (v. 5. 9), like a 
colossus. 

compassed (i. 2. 119), round, 
composure (ii. 3. 105-106), 
bond. 

con (ii. 1. 18), learn by heart, 
conceit (i. 3. 153), imagina¬ 
tion. 

condition (i. 2. 79), on condi¬ 
tion, even though, 
conduce (v. 2. 146), brought 
together. 

conjure (v. 2. 124), raise up 
spirits. 

consisting (iii. 3. 116), ex¬ 
isting. 




GLOSSARY 


171 


constringed (v. 2. 172), con¬ 
tracted. 

convince (ii. 2. 130), prove 
guilty. 

convive we (iv. 5. 271), we 
will feast. 

coped (i. 2. 34), encountered, 
core (ii. 1. 7), ulcer, 
cormorant (ii. 2. 6), ravenous, 
corse (ii. 3. 33), corpse, body, 
counters (ii. 2. 28), round 
pieces of metal used in 
counting. 

cousin (i. 2. 44), niece, a title 
given to any kinsman or 
kinswoman. 

critics (v. 2. 130), censurers, 
carpers. 

crownets (Prol. 6), coronets, 
cunning (iii. 2. 139), power¬ 
ful. 

curious (iii. 2. 69), causing 
care. 

Dardan (Prol. 13), Trojan, 
darking (v. 8. 7), darkening, 
date (i. 2. 279), dates were 
used in pies in Shake¬ 
speare’s time, 
daws (i. 2. 264), jackdaws, 
dearly parted (iii. 3. 96), 
highly endowed, 
death-tokens (ii. 3.185), “the 
spots which indicate the 
approaching death of per¬ 
sons infected with the 
plague.” 

debonair (i. 3. 235), gentle, 
meek. 

deem (iv. 4. 59), thought, 
depravation (v. 2. 131), de¬ 
traction. 

deracinate (i. 3. 99), uproot, 
dexter (iv. 5. 127), right. 
Diana’s waiting-women (v. 

2. 91), the stars, 
directive (i. 3. 356), able to 
be directed. 


discourse (v. 2. 141), reason¬ 
ing. 

dismes (ii. 2. 19), tenths, 
disorb’d (ii. 2. 46), unsphered, 
dispose (ii. 3. 172), disposi¬ 
tion. 

distains (i. 3. 241), taints, 
distraction (v. 2. 41), despair, 
madness. 

dividable (i. 3. 105), dividend, 
double-henned (v. 7. 11), a 
hen married to two cocks, 
and false to both, 
draught (v. 1. 80), privy, 
drave (iii. 3. 190), urged on. 
dress’d (i. 3. 166), prepared, 
dwells (i. 3. 336), depends on. 

edge (v. 5. 24), sword, 
eld (ii. 2. 104), old age. 
embracement (iv. 5. 147), 
embracing. 

embrasures (iv. 4. 37), em¬ 
braces. 

empale (v. 7. 5), enclose, 
emulation (ii. 2. 212), jeal¬ 
ousy. 

emulous (ii. 3. 76), envious, 
encounterers (iv. 5. 58), peo¬ 
ple meeting others half¬ 
way. 

end (i. 2. 83), kill, destroy, 
engendering (ii. 3. 166-167), 
spawn. 

engine (ii. 3. 141), instru¬ 
ment. 

enginer (ii. 3. 8), pioneer, 
errant (i. 3. 9), deviating, 
errors (v. 3. Ill), deceptions, 
esperance (v. 2. 120), hope, 
exasperate (v. 1. 32), ex¬ 
asperated. 

execution (i. 3. 210), work¬ 
ing. 

expectance (iv. 5. 145), ex¬ 
pectation. 

expressure (iii. 3. 204), ex¬ 
pression. 



172 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


extremes (iv. 2. 105), ex¬ 
tremity. 

faction (ii. 3. 105), union. 

-(iii. 3. 190), take sides in 

the quarrel, 
fail (v. 1. 45), let fail, 
fair (iv. 4. 113), well, 
fall (i. 3. 379), let fall, 
fancy (iv. 4. 25), love. 

-(v. 2. 164), love (verb). 

fasting (iii. 3. 137), resting in 
self-satisfaction, 
fat (ii. 2. 48), nourish, 
favour (i. 2. 100), counte¬ 
nance. 

fee-farm (iii. 2. 52), of a 
duration that has no 
bounds. 

fell (iv. 5. 268), fierce, sav¬ 
age. 

fills (iii. 2. 47), shafts of a 
carriage. 

fitchew (v. 1. 64), polecat, 
fits (iii. 1. 61), the divisions of 
a song or tune, 
flat tamed (iv. 1. 64), stale, 
flexure (ii. 3. 113), bending, 
flood (i. 1. 107), ocean, sea. 
fonder (i. 1. 10), more foolish, 
for (i. 2. 292), against. 

-(v. 3. 21), because. 

forced (v. 1. 61), stuffed, 
forked (i. 2. 177), an allusion 
to the horns of the cuckold, 
fraction (ii. 3. 104), discord, 
fraughtage (Prol. 13), freight, 
frayed with (iii. 2. 32-33), 
frightened by. 

free (iv. 5. 138), noble- 

minded, generous, 
friend (i. 2. 83), befriend, 
frush (v. 6. 29), bruise, 

batter. 

fulfilling (Prol. 18), filling full, 
full (iv. 5. 271), in full com¬ 
pany. 

fusty (i. 3. 161), mouldy. 


gaging (v. 1. 43), engaging, 
binding. 

gait (iv. 5. 14), walk, 
gallantry (iii. 1. 146), gal¬ 
lants. 

gawds (iii. 3. 176), gewgaws, 
gear (i. 1. 6), matter, 
generals (i. 3. 180), collec¬ 
tive qualities. 

genius (iv. 4. 50), the spirit 
supposed to direct the ac¬ 
tions of man. 

glozed (ii. 2. 165), used mere 
words. 

God-a-mercy (v. 4. 33), 

Gramercy, many thanks, 
goose of Winchester (v. 10. 
55), strumpet; (the houses 
of ill-fame in London were 
under the jurisdiction of 
the Bishop of Winchester), 
gored (iii. 3. 228), hurt, 

wounded. 

gorget (i. 3. 174), throat 
armor. 

gracious (ii. 2. 125), holy, 
grated (iii. 2. 194), ground, 
great morning (iv. 3. 1), 

broad day. 

hair (i. 2. 28), grain, against 
the grain. 

hale (iv. 5. 6), drag, 
hamstring (i. 3. 154), tendon 
of the kneejoint. 
handsomeness (ii. 1. 16), 
civility. 

hardiment (iv. 5. 28), hardi¬ 
hood. 

hare (ii. 2. 48), timid, 
hatch’d (i. 3. 65), “h. in sil¬ 
ver,” silver-haired, 
hateful (iv. 1. 35), full of 
hate. 

have at thee (v. 4. 25), be 
warned. 

having (iii. 3. 97), possessions, 
endowments. 



GLOSSARY 


heart (iv. 5. 170), “from h. of 
very h.,” from my heart’s 
core. 

heaving (ii. 2. 196), swelling, 
resentful. 

heavy (iv. 5. 95), downcast, 
hedge aside (iii. 3. 158), creep 
. along by the hedge, 
him (i. 2. 299), himself, 
his (i. 3. 210), its. 
hold (ii. 3. 197), look upon, 
honesty (i. 2. 285), chastity, 
horn (i. 1. 117), the symbol of 
a cuckold, 
hot (v. 3. 16), rash, 
hulks (ii. 3. 277), large, heavy 
ships. 

humorous (ii. 3. 136), ca¬ 
pricious. 

humours (i. 2. 23), caprices, 
hung (iv. 5. 187), suspended, 
hurricano (v. 2. 171), water¬ 
spout. 

hurt (v. 3. 20), do harm, 
husbandry (i. 2. 7), thrift. 

ignomy (v. 10. 33), ignominy, 
immures (Prol. 8), walls, 
imposition (iii. 2. 85), in¬ 
junction, the task imposed, 
impressure (iv. 5. 130), im¬ 
pression. 

imputation (i. 3. 339), reputa¬ 
tion. 

inches (iv. 5. Ill), “even to 
his i.,” most thoroughly, 
includes (:. 3. 119), comes to 
an end. 

indrench’d (i. 1. 53*), im¬ 
mersed. 

infect (i. 3. 187), infected, 
inseparate (v. 2. 147), in¬ 
divisible. 

insisture (i. 3. 87), persist¬ 
ency, constancy, 
instance (v. 2. 152, 154), 
proof. 

Iris (i. 3. 380), the rainbow. 


173 

keep (iv. 5. 277), lodge, 
dwell. 

ken (iv. 5. 14), know. 

la (v. 2. 59), an exclamation 
“to call attention to an 
emphatic statement.” 
lavolt (iv. 4. 86), a lively 
dance. 

lazars (ii. 3. 35), lepers, 
learn (ii. 1. 22), teach, tell, 
leather jerkin (iii. 3. 266), a 
short leather coat, 
leavening (i. 1. 22), the ad¬ 
mixing of sour dough, 
leave to see (v. 1. 101-102), 
give up seeing. 

let ... blood (ii. 3. 223), 
bleed. 

Libya (i. 3. 328), the African 
desert. 

lie (iii. 3. 162), you lie. 
lief (i. 2. 113), willingly, 
lifter (i. 2. 128), cheat, 

thief. 

light (i. 2. 8), quickly, 
like (iii. 3. 42), likely, 
like as (i. 2. 7), as if. 
likes not you (v. 2. 102), 
does not please, 
limekilns i’ the palm (v. 1. 
23-24), gouty lumps (chalk- 
stones) in the hand. 

’loo (v. 7. 10), halloo! 
lunes (ii. 3. 137), mad freaks, 
lust (iv. 4. 132), pleasure, 
lustihood (ii. 2. 50), high 
spirits. 

luxurious (v. 4. 9), lustful, 
luxury (v. 2. 55), lust. 

maculation (iv. 4. 64), stain, 
maiden battle (iv. 5. 87), un¬ 
bloody combat, 
mail (iii. 3. 152), coat of mail, 
armor. 

main (i. 3. 373), general. 

- (ii. 3. 273), full force. 




174 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


manage (iii. 3. 25), direction, 
administration, 
mappery (i. 3. 205), study of 
maps (used contemptu¬ 
ously). 

mastic (i. 3. 73), a gum used 
in Shakespeare’s day to 
fill teeth. 

match (iv. 5. 37), “I’ll lay my 
life.” 

matter (iv. 2. 61), business, 
mere (i. 3. Ill), absolute, 
merry Greek (i. 2. 117), boon- 
companion; “The Greeks 
were proverbially spoken of 
by the Romans as fond of 
good living and free pota¬ 
tions” (Nares). 
mill-stones (i. 2. 157), “to 
weep millstones” “not to 
weep at all.” 

mirable (iv. 5. 141), admir¬ 
able. 

miscarrying (i. 3. 351), being 
defeated, killed, 
misprizing (iv. 5. 74), under¬ 
valuing. 

moiety (ii. 2. 107), part, 
monstruosity (iii. 2. 86), un¬ 
naturalness. 

monumental (iii. 3. 153), 

memorial. 

moral (iv. 4. 107), meaning, 
motive (iv. 5. 57), instrument, 
moving limb. 

multipotent (iv. 5. 128), al¬ 
mighty. 

nail (iv. 5. 46), finger-nail, 
naughty (iv. 2. 26), good-for- 
nothing. 

neglection (i. 3. 127), neglect, 
nice (iv. 5. 249), accurate, 
nod (i. 2. 211), call you a fool, 
noise (i. 2. 12), rumor. 

oddly (i. 3. 339), unequally, 
o’ergalled (v. 3. 55), inflamed. 


o’er-wrested (i. 3. 157), 

strained. 

of (i. 1. 73; ii. 3. 197), by. 

-(iii. 3. 265), on. 

on (i. 1. 73), of. 

-(ii. 2. 143), with, by. 

- (iii. 2. 28), in. 

opes (i. 3. 73), opens, 
opinion (i. 3. 336; i. 3. 373), 
reputation. 

-(iii. 3. 265), self-conceit, 

arrogance. 

oppugnancy (i. 3. Ill), op¬ 
position. 

orchard (iii. 2. 17), garden, 
orgulous (Prol. 2), proud, 
haughty. 

orifex (v. 2. 150), orifice, 
orts (v. 2. 157), remnants, 
overbulk (i. 3. 320), over¬ 
tower. 

owes (iii. 3. 99), owns, 
oyes (iv. 5. 142), hear ye!; 
attend! the town crier’s 
introduction to a procla¬ 
mation. 

pace (i. 3. 132), step, degree, 
pageant (iii. 2. 80), theatrical 
exhibition. 

pageants (i. 3. 151), mimics, 
painted cloths (v. 10. 46-47), 
hangings for walls, 
palating (iv. 1. 61), perceiving 
by taste. 

palm (ii. 3. 199), the victor’s 
wreath. 

palter , (ii, 3. 244), trifle, 

shuffle. 

pard (iii. 2. 200), leopard, 
part (i. 3. 352), party, side, 
parts (iii. 3.117), endowments, 
parts of nature (ii. 3. 253), 
natural gifts, 
party (ii. 2. 156), side, 
pash (ii. 3. 213), strike, 
pashed (v. 5. 10), struck 
down. 



GLOSSARY 


175 


pass (ii. 2. 139), experience, 
passed (i. 2. 181), exceeded 
all bounds. 

past proportion (ii. 2. 29), im¬ 
mensity. 

patchery (ii. 3. 74), clumsy 
hypocrisy. 

peevish (v. 3. 16), foolish, 
pelting (iv. 5. 266), paltry, 
perdition (v. 2. 144), destruc¬ 
tion. 

perforce (i. 3. 123), of ne¬ 
cessity. 

performance (ii. 2. 196), in¬ 
dulgence. 

per se (i. 2. 15), by himself, 
pre-eminent. 

persistive (i. 3. 21), patient, 
person (iv. 4. 79), personal 
appearance. 

pertly (iv. 5. 218), impu¬ 
dently. 

pheeze (ii. 3. 215), drive out, 
beat. 

pia mater (ii. 1. 77-78), brain, 
piece (iv. 1. 64), cask of wine, 
pight (v. 10. 24), pitched, 
placket (ii. 3. 22), petticoat, 
woman. 

plantage (iii. 2. 183), any¬ 
thing planted. 

politic regard (iii. 3. 254), a 
knowing look. 

porpentine (ii. 1. 27), porcu¬ 
pine. 

port (iv. 4. Ill), gate, 
portly (iv. 5. 161), handsome, 
imposing. 

possess (iv. 4. 112), inform, 
power (i. 3. 139), armed force, 
pregnant (iv. 4. 88), ready, 
prenominate (iv. 5. 249), 

foretell. 

presented (iii. 2. 80), rep¬ 
resented. 

presently (ii. 3. 146), im¬ 
mediately. 

pricks (i. 3. 343), points. 


primogenitive (i. 3. 106), right 
of primogeniture, 
private soul (iv. 5. Ill), per¬ 
sonal opinion. 

prodigious (v. 1. 99), por¬ 
tentous. 

proof (v. 5. 29), the thing 
which is proved, 
propend (ii. 2. 190), incline, 
propension (ii. 2. 136), in¬ 
clination. 

proper (i. 2. 208), handsome, 
comely. 

- (ii. 2. 89), own. 

propugnation (ii. 2. 136), 

means of defense, 
pun (ii. 1. 42), pound, 
puttock (v. 1. 65), kite. 

quails (v. 1. 54), loose women, 
quality (iv. 1. 46), reason, 
question (iv. 1. 13), conversa¬ 
tion, intercourse. 

rank (i. 3. 196), rankly, 
ransack’d (ii. 2. 150), stolen, 
carried off. 

rape (ii. 2. 148), seizure, 
raptures (ii. 2. 122), seizures, 
rash (iv. 2. 61), urgent, hasty, 
reck (v. 6. 26), care, 
recordation (v. 2. 115), re¬ 
membrance. 

recourse (v. 3. 55), frequent 
flowing. 

rein (i. 3. 189), “in such a 
r.,” bridled up. 
rejoindure (iv. 4. 36), meet¬ 
ing again. 

relation (iii. 3. 201), report, 
reproof (i. 3. 33), refutation, 
repured (iii. 2. 22), refined, 
respect (ii. 2. 49), considera¬ 
tion. 

retire (v. 3. 53; v. 4. 22), re- 
treat. 

reversion (iii. 2. 99), future 
possession. 



176 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


rheum (v. 3. 105), watering, 
ribald (iv. 2. 9), noisy, 
right (i. 3. 170), exactly, 
rive (i. 1. 37), be split, 
rivelled (v. 1. 25), shrivelled, 
roisting (ii. 2. 208), swagger¬ 
ing. 

roundly (iii. 2. 160), plainly, 
ruth (v. 3. 48), pity. 

sacred (iv. 5. 133), royal, 
salt (i. 3. 371), bitter, 
sans (i. 3. 94), without, 
savage (ii. 3. 133), rude, 
scaffoldage (i. 3. 156), the 
woodwork of the stage, 
scantling (i. 3. 341), small 
portion. 

scar (i. 1. 116), wound, 
sculls (v. 5. 22), shoals of fish, 
seam (ii. 3. 193), lard, 
secure (ii. 2. 15), over-con¬ 
fident. 

securely (iv. 5. 73), care¬ 
lessly. 

see (iv. 4. 57), see each other, 
seeming (i. 3. 157), show, 
seld (iv. 5. 149), seldom, 
self-admission (ii. 3. 174), 
according to his own fancy, 
self-affected (ii. 3. 250), self- 
loving. 

self-breath (ii. 3. 180), his 
own words. 

sennet (i. 3. 1), Stage Direc¬ 
tion, a set of notes on the 
cornet or trumpet, 
sequestering (iii. 3. 8), sep¬ 
arating. 

serpigo (ii. 3. 78), eruption on 
the skin, leprosy, 
set ... to (ii. 1. 94), oppose 
to. 

severally (iv. 5. 273), sep¬ 
arately. 

’sfoot (ii. 3. 5), a corruption 
of God’s foot, 
shent (ii. 3. 86), reviled. 


shoeing-horn (v. 1. 58), “the 
emblem of one who is a 
subservient tool to the 
caprices of another.” 
short-armed (ii. 3. 15), not 
reaching far. 
sick (i. 3. 132), envious, 
sieve (ii. 2. 71), wicker bas¬ 
ket, voider. 

sinister (iv. 5. 127), left, 
sith (i. 3. 13), since, 
skilless (i. 1. 12), ignorant, 
sleave silk (v. 1. 33), soft 
floss silk used for weaving, 
sleeveless (v. 4. 9), useless, 
sluttish (iv. 5. 62), unchaste, 
smile at (v. 10. 7), mock at. 
soilure (iv. 1. 58), stain, 
sometime (i. 3. 151), some¬ 
times. 

sort (i. 3. 376), lot. 
sorts (i. 1. Ill), befits, 
speculation (iii. 3. 109), vis¬ 
ion. 

spend his mouth (v. 1. 97), 
bark. 

sperr (Prol. 19), shut, bar. 
spleen (i. 3. 178), fit of 
laughter. 

-(ii. 2. 128), “the weakest 

s.,” “the dullest and cold¬ 
est heart.” 

spleens (ii. 2. 196), impulses, 
caprices. 

splinter (i. 3. 283), splinter¬ 
ing. 

square (v. 2. 131), judge, 
stale (ii. 2. 79), vapid, used 
up. 

starts (v. 2. 101), startles, 
stickler-like (v. 8. 18), like an 
umpire in a combat, 
still (iv. 5. 194), continually, 
always. 

stithied (iv. 5. 254), forged, 
stomach (iv. 5. 263), inclina¬ 
tion. 

- (ii. 1. 137), courage. 





GLOSSARY 


177 


straight (iii. 2. 17), straight¬ 
way, immediately, 
strain (i. 3. 326), difficulty, 
strange (ii. 3. 250), reserved, 
strawy (v. 5. 24), like straw, 
stretch’d (i. 3. 156), affected, 
exaggerated. 

subduements (iv. 5. 186), vic¬ 
tories. 

subscribes (iv. 5. 105), yields, 
substance (i. 3. 324), wealth, 
success (i. 3. 340), result, 
sufferance (i. 1. 30), suffering, 
suffocate (i. 3. 125), suffo¬ 
cated. 

suited (Prol. 24), clad, 
swath (v. 5. 25), grass cut by 
the scythe. 

sweat (v. 10. 56), the sweat¬ 
ing-tub was a recognized 
form of “cure” for venereal 
disease. 

tables (iv. 5. 60), tablets, 
tabourines (iv. 5. 274), drums, 
tarre ... on (i. 3. 392), in¬ 
cite, urge on. 

tent (ii. 2. 16), probe for 
searching a wound, 
tercel (iii. 2. 54), male hawk, 
tetchy (i. 1. 101), touchy, 
peevish. 

thicker (iii. 2. 37), quicker, 
throw my glove (iv. 4. 63), 
challenge. 

thwart (i. 3. 15), athwart, 
crosswise. 

tick (iii. 3. 314), an insect, 
tickle it (v. 2. 176), make him 
pay. 

ticklish (iv. 5. 61), inquisitive, 
tide (v. 1. 89), right time, 
tisick (v. 3. 101), phthisis, a 
wasting away, 
tithe (ii. 2. 19), tenth, 
toast (i. 3. 45), a dainty 
morsel. 

tortive (i. 3. 9), distorted. 


traded (ii. 2. 64), profes¬ 
sional. 

train (v. 3. 4), entice, 
travail (i. 1. 72), pains, 
trumpet (i. 3. 251), trumpeter, 
tucket (i. 3. 212), Stage di¬ 
rection, a flourish on a 
trumpet. 

turtle (iii. 2. 184), turtle-dove. 

uncomprehensive (iii. 3. 198), 
incomprehensible, 
undergo (iii. 2. 85), under¬ 
take. 

underwrite (ii. 3. 135), submit 
to. 

ungracious (i. 1. 94), hateful, 
unplausive (iii. 3. 43), dis¬ 
pleased. 

unrespective (ii. 2. 71), used 
at random. 

unsquared (i. 3. 159), not 
shaped or adapted to the 
purpose. 

untraded (iv. 5. 177), un¬ 
hackneyed. 

use to (ii. 1. 52), make a prac¬ 
tice. 

vail (v. 8. 7), setting, 
vantbrace (i. 3. 297), armor 
for the arm. 

varlet (i. 1. 1), servant to a 
knight. 

vassalage (iii. 2. 39), vassals, 
vaunt (Prol. 27), first begin¬ 
ning. 

venomous (iv. 2. 12), malig¬ 
nant. 

villain (iii. 2. 34), a term of 
endearment. 

vindicative (iv. 5. 107), vin¬ 
dictive. 

vinewed’st (ii. 1. 15), most 
mouldy. 

violenteth (iv. 4. 4), is violent, 
vizarded (i. 3. 83), covered 
with a mask. 

voices (i. 3. 382), applause. 




178 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


waftage (in. 2. 11), passage, 
wallet (iii. 3. 145), knapsack, 
ward (i. 2. 282), guard, pos¬ 
ture of defense, 
ware (iv. 2. 56), aware, 
watched (iii. 2. 44), a term in 
falconry; hawks were kept 
from sleeping, watched, to 
tame them. 

waterflies (v. 1. 36), used 
contemptuously, vanity, 
watery (iii. 2. 21), watering, 
desiring. 


weather (v. 3. 26), “keeps 
the w.,” has the advantage, 
weeds (iii. 3. 239), garments, 
where (iv. 4. 33), so that, 
whom (iii. 3. 201), which, 
without (iii. 3. 97), externally, 
physically. 

wrest (iii. 3. 23), instrument 
for tightening the strings 
of a harp (used here figura¬ 
tively) . 

wretch (iv. 2. 31), used as a 
term of endearment. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 


The following list of editions, books, and articles contains the 
most valuable and accessible critical material upon Troilus and 
Cressida. The more important texts and articles are denoted by 
asterisks. 


TEXTS 

Troilus and Cressida 
Arden Edition London, 1906 

Troilus and Cressida 
Temple Edition London, 1896 

The Shakespeare Quar¬ 
to Facsimiles, Troilus 
and Cressida ' Quarto, 

1609. London, 1886 

The Works of Shake¬ 
speare 

Eversley Edition London, 1927 

Facsimile of First Folio London, 1902 

The Bankside Shake¬ 
speare, Vol. IV 
Parallel Texts of Quarto 
and Folio 

Troilus and Cressida New York, 1889 

Troilus and Cressida 
Yale Shakespeare New Haven, 1927 


1. Deighton, K. 

2. Gollancz, I. 

*3. Griggs, W. 

4. Herford, C. H. 

*5. Lee, S. 

6. Morgan, A. 

7. Paradise, N. B. 

*8. Porter, C. and 
H. A. Clarke 

9. Tatlock, J. S. P. 

Acheson, A. 

* Adams, J. Q. 


Troilus and Cressida 
First Folio Edition 
Troilus and Cressida 
Tudor Series 

COMMENTARIES 
Shakespeare and the Ri¬ 
val Poet 

“ Timon of Athens and 
Irregularities of the 
First Folio, ” Journal 
of English and Ger¬ 
manic Philology 
179 


New York, 1910 
New York, 1912 

London, 1903 

January, 1908 


180 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


* Adams, J. Q. 

A Life of William 



Shakespeare 

Boston, 1923 

* Alexander, P. 

Bibliography of Troilus 


, 

and Cressida Library, 



4th series 

(The most recent bib¬ 
liographical study.) 

December, 1928 

*Boas, F. S. 

Shakespeare and His 



Predecessors 
(Contains the best 
analysis of the char¬ 
acters.) 

New York, 1925 

Boyle, R. 

“ Troilus and Cressida” 
Englische Studien, 



XXX 

Leipzig, 1901 

Brandes, G. 

William Shakespeare 

London, 1926 

Brooke, T. 

“ Shakespeare’s Study 

Yale Review , 


in Culture and 

New series 17, 


Anarchy” 

1927-1928 

Campbell, 0. C. 

“Troilus and Cressida: 

London Mercury, 

A Justification” 

(The play reviewed in 
the light of the World 
War.) 

May, 1921 

Caxton, W. 

The Recuyell of the His¬ 

London, 1894, 


tory es of Troy 

2 vols. 

*Chambers, E. K. 

William Shakespeare 
(Critical resume of 
modern research on 
the play.) 

New York, 1930 

Greg, W. W. 

“ Principles of Emen¬ 
dation in Shake¬ 
speare, ” British 



Academy Lectures 

London, 1928 

*Guha, P. K. 

On Two Problems in 



Shakespeare 
(Contains the best anal¬ 
ysis of the dramatic 
structure of the 
play.) 

London, 1926 

Harris, F. 

The Man Shakespeare 
and His Tragic Life 



Story 

New York, 1919 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


181 


Henryson, R. 


Heywood, T. 
Knight, G. W. 
*Lawrence, W. W. 


Matthews, J. B. 

♦Rhodes, R. C. 
Robertson, J. M. 

♦Rollins, H. E. 


Root, R. K. 
Root, R. K. 


Small, R. A. 


♦Stapfer, P. 


♦Tatlock, J. S. P. 


The Testament of 
Cressid, Chaucer and 
Other Pieces 
The Iron Age 
The Wheel of Fire 
Shakespeare's Problem 
Comedies 

(The best general dis¬ 
cussion of Troilus and 
C ressida problems.) 
Shakespeare as a Play¬ 
wright 

Shakespeare ’ s First Folio 
Shakespeare & Chap¬ 
man 

The Troilus and Cressi- 


New York, 1894- 
1897 

London, 1874 
New York, 1930 

New York, 1931 


New York, 1913 
New York, 1923 

London, 1917 


da Story from Chaucer P. M. L. A., 1917, 
to Shakespeare vol. 32 

(An authoritative essay 
on versions of Troilus 
and Cressida in Eng¬ 
land.) 

The Poetry of Chaucer Cambridge, 1922 
Chaucer s Troilus and 

Criseyde Princeton, 1926 

(The best modern text 
of Chaucer’s story.) 

The Stage Quarrel be¬ 
tween Ben Jonson 
and the So-called Po¬ 
etasters Breslau, 1899 

Shakespeare and Class¬ 
ical Antiquity London, 1880 

(An excellent early dis¬ 
cussion of the play.) 

“The Siege of Troy in 
Elizabethan Litera¬ 
ture, Especially in 
Shakespeare and P.M.L.A., 1915, 
Heywood.” vol. 30 

(A standard treatment 
of the source ma¬ 
terial.) 


182 


TROILUS AND CRESSIDA 


*Tatlock, J. S. P. 

*Taylor, G. C. 

Wallace, C. W. 
White, R. G. 


“ The Chief Problem in 
Shakespeare ” 

(A popular digest of the 
article cited above.) 

“ Shakespeare’s Atti¬ 
tude towards Love 
and Honor in Troilus 
and Cressida.” 

(A defense of the play 
as a satiric comedy.) 

“Shakespeare’s Money 
Interest in the Globe 
Theatre.” 

Studies in Shakespeare 


Sewanee Review, 
1916, vol. 24 


P. M. L. A., 1930, 
vol. 45 


Century Maga¬ 
zine, 1910, vol. 
58 

Boston, 1886 






MAR 2 6 1932 















































